Apple Event - Live Blogging/Streaming Coverage

[kilron]

Originally Posted by Dulin's Books

Boox is sold out world wide. Onyx went thru something like 50k + since the start of the year. We just shipped every device in our last batch last Friday and are already sold probably halfway into the next shipment.

PocketBook's models have sold out occasionally as well here and world wide. Demand for the Ivory 360 in the US was 2x what it was overseas easily outselling its initial shipments. Turnover is very quick even now in January when sales are normally slow after the holidays.

cool! i honestly have no idea what those models or brands are. maybe i'm just not educated about the lesser known brands i guess. what percentage of all global sales of all dedicated eReaders do you think those couple models together represent?

[DawnFalcon]

Of course you're going to deny a direct attack, but that is no more and no less than what you are doing. All eReaders are selling out perodically, and more the only components in many of them which are not common are the the screen and the plastic shell.

These things are produced in batches. Supply will rise and fall and they'll go in and out of stock. This is perfectly normal when supply is constrained!

epaper devices are at an early stage of adoption - single figure millions. At this point in their lifecycle, as per other devices, it's quite believable (and the supply situation supports this) that they are still selling purely to their core audience.

[kilron]

ok, that's interesting. so what would one define as the core audience of dedicated eBook readers? i personally think eReaders are on the cusp of mass adoption and one of the primary things holding them back is initial buy-in cost. if you can buy a netbook for the same price, then they're too much. just my opinion.

but then it also sounds like if all of these various devices all have a display made from one company in one factory, then we're also on the cusp of major supply issues and that fact that its controlled by one company may also be leading to way the prices are still expensive (relatively.... its all relative..).

more and more libraries are either closing down or converting to digital formats. will e-ink displays continue to advance and accommodate books with content that is more than mere text? will they suffice for reading well-formatted periodicals?

[DawnFalcon]

The people primarily interested in either or both of the battery life or the epaper screen.

I agree on cost. I also think that eInk Corp is screwed. Let me explain - Vizplex screens are expensive, and production has been limited. However, ASUS very clearly mentioned a £250 price point for a 9" SiPix screen reader. This is both significantly cheaper than the iPad (as the KDX is not), and not much more expensive than today's 6" epaper readers.

Unless they can pull something out their hat, as cheaper or more capeable alternate technologies start to come to the market this year - removing the supply bottleneck, the market share of Vizplex is going to plummet. Given 3-4 years, then yes - I think we'll see very little difference between "internet appliance" and "ereader", but right now the iPad and the Kindle remain very different machines for different audiences.

And...that's why I've started to use "epaper" rather than "eink"

[Dulin's Books]

Originally Posted by DawnFalcon

Unless they can pull something out their hat, as cheaper or more capeable alternate technologies start to come to the market this year - removing the supply bottleneck, the market share of Vizplex is going to plummet.

http://displaydaily.com/2009/10/15/e...n-accelerates/

AUO’s arch competitor CMO announced jointly with PVI on October 1 that the two companies would collaborate on ePaper display production, with CMO contributing a Gen 5 production line to the effort. With most EPDs still being made on Gen 4 or smaller lines, the collaboration could realize a much-needed economy of scale.

http://www.cmo.com.tw/opencms/cmo/pr...=3&__locale=en

between LG and CMO the E-Ink bottle neck is gone

[DawnFalcon]

*nods*

As for how worthy the next PVI tech is, well, I'd like to see production samples...

[wallcraft]

Originally Posted by Dulin's Books

between LG and CMO the E-Ink bottle neck is gone

So the price of Vizplex screens should come down significantly, particularly if SiPix is delivered in volume this spring.

[Dulin's Books]

exactly

Dawn there is a video around by charbax at ces showing Pocketbooks demo 9.7 design with the plastic backed PVI display.

[nekokami]

Chill, folks.

Yes, epaper screens have been selling as fast (and sometimes faster) than the vendors make them. However, the volume of LCD devices being sold is still far greater, and even the number of iPhone ebook apps downloaded exceeds the number of electrophoretic devices sold, total.

Since there isn't an unconstrained supply of electrophoretic screens (e ink or otherwise), we don't know if they are more popular than LCD devices for reading. We won't know that until supply exceeds demand and we can compare the two fairly. At this point all we can say is that demand for electrophoretic screens exceeds the supply, which isn't the same as saying that the demand for one is higher than the demand for the other.

[nekokami]

Originally Posted by pilotbob

I thought the B&N reader (aka eReader) was updated to support the Adobe/Nook DRM. Perhaps not?

I stand corrected:

http://www.barnesandnoble.com/ebooks...&cds2Pid=28709

New in Version 1.1.4

* ePub File Format Support

And then the tech specs for the Nook say:

From Barnes & Noble,
Fictionwise & eReader

* EPUB
* PDB
* PDF

Other Sources

* EPUB (Non or Adobe DRM)
* PDB (Non DRM)
* PDF
* Graphics: JPG, GIF, PNG, BMP
* Audio: MP3

Not Supported: DOC, LIT, TXT, AMZ (Amazon), LRZ/LRX (Sony)

[Harmon]

Originally Posted by random50

Typed is an extremely long way from being viable for classes involving non-ascii characters and diagrams. Every student has to take at least *some* classes like that in the US. I don't know how it is in humanities subjects, but in Maths classes, I've not had a single student who types their notes.

There's also the issue of whether these onscreen keyboards are responsive enough to cope with high speed touchtyping and, even if they are, whether that's sufficiently comfortable. I have my doubts.

Hmm. Here's my prediction. Before the Fall 2010 term, the iPad will have one or more apps which allow notes to be taken in handwritten form, using a stylus. Such an app probably already exists, but this app will allow the student to (1) organize the notes and (2) back them up to the cloud, from whence they can be retrieved to a laptop/desktop & printed. Think Evernotes.

At that point, some enterprising lad or lassie will develop MathNotes (TM) app, which will integrate a scientific calculator with a stylus based notepad, and all the math students (both of them) will demand an iPad.

[Harmon]

[QUOTE=scottjl;761798]why only 16g? don't you think you'll go thru that fast? i have a 32g iphone that is always around 90%. for me i think i'll be grabbing the 64G non-3g. those movies and music files add up. with free wifi most anywhere and my 3g iphone to tether off of when i actually can't find any.[QUOTE]

I won't be doing movies, nor much by way of music. I have a 16 gig iPhone, which is never very close to being filled up. In part, that's because I curate what goes on the iPhone, in part it's because I have a nano for serious listening. I load it up, for instance, with Teaching Company lectures, & it functions as a kind of dedicated device which I use when I know I'll have the time to pay attention. The iPhone music is short attention span stuff.

I might push to the 32 gig iPad, just on the general principle that storage needs always expand.

See, I think of the storage/3G issue as a modification issue. Your basic generic iPad at 16 gig & no 3G is a reading machine addressing all kinds of written material. Your 64 gig with 3G is a lightweight lower end netbook for travelors. Your 64 gig without 3G is a top line audiovisual device. Your 32 gig no 3G is a stay at home secondary computer on a home wireless network.

For me, the iPad is a reading machine, and that doesn't require a whole lot of storage. I'm wavering on the 3G issue, mainly because I seem to be traveling more these days, and might like to take advantage of the 15 dollar offer to do netsurfing & keep my email from getting out of hand. But I have no sense of what 250 gig of download means. Someone needs to make a gig-o-meter app so we don't go over the download limit...

[BWhite]

Originally Posted by Harmon

Hmm. Here's my prediction. Before the Fall 2010 term, the iPad will have one or more apps which allow notes to be taken in handwritten form, using a stylus. Such an app probably already exists, but this app will allow the student to (1) organize the notes and (2) back them up to the cloud, from whence they can be retrieved to a laptop/desktop & printed. Think Evernotes.

I believe you have put some thought into it and this is a good prediction. I like it.

Where I am at is wondering if the iPad processor has sufficient power to run a high-quality handwriting recognition application - not electronic ink, but actual handwriting to digital character conversion.

[Harmon]

Originally Posted by stustaff

erm there is already an app for reading sony/adobe epub drm books.

...and that would be...(please don't say txtr...)

[Harmon]

Originally Posted by BWhite

I believe you have put some thought into it and this is a good prediction. I like it.

Where I am at is wondering if the iPad processor has sufficient power to run a high-quality handwriting recognition application - not electronic ink, but actual handwriting to digital character conversion.

I lack the technical knowledge to make an educated response, but I have lots of half-grasped (ahem!) knowledge, so I'm willing to bet that buried in the iPad is a Newton yearning to get out.

And speaking of Newton, this just popped into my head - the medical profession is going to love this device in its 64 gig noG version. ("noG" - let's meme that... I'm buying the 16 gig noG iPad...)