Would you be interested in a palm-sized eInk reader?

[anamardoll]

Originally Posted by bhartman36

Maybe, but I still see any potential functions as being a lot more limited than your average smartphone.

Absolutely, but here's a walkthrough of my thinking (and I just bought a PocketBook 360 as the smallest thing I could find - I hope I like it!!):

1. Battery life. My smartphone gets about 4 hours of dedicated reading. Maybe 5. That's not a very long time for me, and I keep my charger at home.

2. Sunlight glare. My smartphone can't be read in full sunlight. Period.

3. Size. I love my Nook but it's big enough that it pretty much needs a carrying case and a shoulder-strap or dedicated hand to hold it. A cellphone-sized e-reader would fit in my pocket.

4. Weight. I'm officially the weakest-wristed person in the whole world, but my wrist gets tired of holding my Nook after awhile. My cellphone is much easier to hold, but see #1 and #2.

[bhartman36]

Originally Posted by anamardoll

Absolutely, but here's a walkthrough of my thinking (and I just bought a PocketBook 360 as the smallest thing I could find - I hope I like it!!):

1. Battery life. My smartphone gets about 4 hours of dedicated reading. Maybe 5. That's not a very long time for me, and I keep my charger at home.

2. Sunlight glare. My smartphone can't be read in full sunlight. Period.

3. Size. I love my Nook but it's big enough that it pretty much needs a carrying case and a shoulder-strap or dedicated hand to hold it. A cellphone-sized e-reader would fit in my pocket.

4. Weight. I'm officially the weakest-wristed person in the whole world, but my wrist gets tired of holding my Nook after awhile. My cellphone is much easier to hold, but see #1 and #2.

Those are all good points, and I think that size e-reader would work great for you, but I don't see it as that big of a market, so I don't think it'll ever get produced.

To give you an example of the problem: Yesterday or the day before, CNET announced that the Flip digital camcorders are being discontinued. Why? Because you can take HD video w/ a smartphone now, and people aren't buying them. I just think that an e-ink reader, for most people, would fall into the same category: There's nothing distinctive enough about it to make it a standalone device at that size. You're obviously someone who is discerning, but for most people, the reaction will be, "Meh. My smartphone can do that. I'll just turn up the brightness if it starts to get washed out by sunlight." And that's especially true because I doubt an e-ink pocket-sized device will be able to distinguish itself by price. One of the things that (I think) keeps e-readers going as standalone devices is that a nice tablet is so much more expensive. I've got a free Android smartphone (with contract, of course) that can run both the Nook and the Kindle software. Once you can do that, it makes an e-ink pocket device a lot harder to justify.