Tablets are the future of eReading

[Maggie Leung]

Originally Posted by DMcCunney

It depends on what you do and read. I'm interested in a tablet because I'll do other things besides read ebooks on it. The fact that it does do other things won't be a distraction when reading, as I expect to be able to set things up so I won't be distracted by other functions.

And I read non-fiction as well as fiction, and some of what I read needs color and down the road will benefit from the possibilities the hardware offers.

What Dennis said.

My tablet and computer needs are pretty basic, so I probably won't be upgrading my iPad soon. I have a hard time thinking up what other features might prompt me to buy, but I'm interested in seeing tablet advances all the same.

The cheaper tablets probably will make all our lives more convenient directly or indirectly. For instance, I never needed a pager / beeper, but that tech became so cheap that they now hand them out while you wait for your sandwich at some restaurants, lol. It will be fun to see where tablet technology will take us.

[ebusinesstutor]

I think the ereaders vs tablet discussion is a lot like PDAs vs cell phones.

Years ago, people used PDAs (personal digital assistants) like the Palm Pilot to keep organized with their calendars, address books, notes, etc.

Now PDAs are all but dead - their functionality has been taken over entirely by cell phones and smart phones. Even a basic, non-smart cell phone has a calendar, address book and other features.

I think that ereaders will become more like tablets and tablets will become lighter with screens easier on the eyes.

It won't happen immediately, but I believe in about 10 years that tablet devices will have the bulk of the ereader market.

[Vivian]

I don't think it's been mentioned in this thread yet that e-Ink screens only draw power when turning the page. That is a super cool feature, and means that multipurpose tablets will have a job becoming as energy-efficient as dedicated e-readers, if they can achieve it at all.

That said, most people don't care about energy efficiency or even consider it, so it could well be that Kitabi is right and tablets will become the preferred mode of e-reading.

[dgendreauoliver]

I too am waiting for technology to catch up and prices to come down. in the meantime, my android phone and netbook work just fine for taking photos, listening to music and general email, web-surfing, etc. If phone technology advances first, I'd be fine with a slightly bigger one to get the features I desire. I also agree that charging my device daily is not a problem. I dock my phone nightly because I use it as an alarm clock too. I enjoy having all my books with me (on phone) when I'm in the doctor's office or waiting for anything. my Kindle is a better size for viewing, but the phone is more portable. I like an all-in-one device. with bluetooth, a tablet PC could also be a phone. but I don't think I want to carry my tablet in my purse, i.e. a slightly bigger phone with multiple apps would be better for me and I am prepared to wait. My 25 yr old son does the research for me and strongly feels that the technology is coming in the near future, so I will keep my android phone for now and wait for technology to catch up.

[randyflycaster]

Interesting. To me the biggest advantage of my Sony Pocket ereader is that it's so light, which makes reading so much more enjoyable. As tablets get lighter, ereaders will also get lighter.

Randy

[DMcCunney]

Originally Posted by Vivian

I don't think it's been mentioned in this thread yet that e-Ink screens only draw power when turning the page. That is a super cool feature, and means that multipurpose tablets will have a job becoming as energy-efficient as dedicated e-readers, if they can achieve it at all.

That said, most people don't care about energy efficiency or even consider it, so it could well be that Kitabi is right and tablets will become the preferred mode of e-reading.

The screen is the principal battery draw in a handheld device, so a screen that only uses power when redrawing a page is a significant factor in battery life.

The big question is how much you really care.

For instance, my ebook viewer is a multi-function device - a PDA. It uses an LCD screen that requires a constant trickle of power to maintain. I keep screen brightness set as low as possibly while still being readable (which on my device is about 10%) to conserve the battery. But in practice, I recharge it nightly, so I seldom see the battery drop below 80% charged.

Charging various devices like PDA, cell phone, and laptop is a reflex. I've never encountered a problem where the battery totally drained because I forgot to charge something, because I don't forget to charge things.

So for me, extended battery life offered by an eInk screen is not a selling point, because I don't really care.

An additional issue is that I need color support for a fair bit of what I do and read, and that's not available for eInk. There are promising low power color displays beginning to appear, but they haven't been incorporated in a dedicated reader yet.

And a multi-purpose tablet will probably perform functions that inherently use more power (like displaying video), so they won't be able to match the reader's energy efficiency. If you're getting a multi-purpose tablet, you probably know that going in, and you don't expect to get efficiency comparable to a dedicated reader. You'll want efficiency at least comparable to a laptop and preferably better, so that you can do things like use it on a long airplane flight without running out of power mid-way.

Everyone is concerned with battery life. Current tablets hitting the streets use ARM CPUs, and lower power consumption has been an ARM design goal from the beginning. Low-power color displays like Qualcomm's Mirasol are starting to get design wins for the same reason. And there is continual research to improve the efficiency of batteries.

But if you insist on a device than can go a couple of weeks without a recharge, a tablet isn't what you get. And if you need a device that does other things besides display ebooks, you accept a trade-off in battery life.
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Dennis

[DiapDealer]

But if you insist on a device than can go a couple of weeks without a recharge, a tablet isn't what you get. And if you need a device that does other things besides display ebooks, you accept a trade-off in battery life.

That makes sense to me. And I hope to always be able to make that choice... now, and in the future. But, I fear that the choice will be taken away from me at some point. If past technological trends are any indicator, then dedicated eReaders will eventually die out in favor of these multi-function devices that happen to support various eReader apps.

While I certainly won't belittle anyone who loves their swiss army knife, I prefer the simplicity of owning several "fixed" blades and a separate pair of tweezers.

So, as long as my dedicated eReaders can continue to be replaced ad infinitum as each eventually wears out (with something similar)... then I sincerely wish Tablet users and Tablet manufacturers all the best. Go nuts!! But if they're looking to eventually replace the dedicated eReader... then... well... En Garde

[Kitabi]

Originally Posted by EowynCarter

Yes, trend is multi purpose device. But, selling lots of multipurpose device don't prevent selling dedicated devices. Just mean selling less of them.

I agree. I said so myself at the end of my first post which I am quoting from below.

In summary, I would say that IMHO eReaders are going to become a niche market if tablet makers use technology and marketing to their advantage.

[Maggie Leung]

Originally Posted by DiapDealer

So, as long as my dedicated eReaders can continue to be replaced ad infinitum as each eventually wears out (with something similar)... then I sincerely wish Tablet users and Tablet manufacturers all the best. Go nuts!! But if they're looking to eventually replace the dedicated eReader... then... well... En Garde

Can't speak for other tablet users, but I'm actually helping your cause: I still give e-ink devices as gifts when I think they would work well for the recipient. I just ordered a Kindle and a case for a relative, for instance.

Even if I no longer use a dedicated device, I hope they'll survive. I support reading in all its forms, and e-ink clearly serves a good number of readers.

[DiapDealer]

Originally Posted by Maggie Leung

Even if I no longer use a dedicated device, I hope they'll survive. I support reading in all its forms, and e-ink clearly serves a good number of readers.

See; you get it! Clearly; "Readers are the future of eReading"

[Penforhire]

I agree with DMC, beyond a certain battery life it doesn't matter so much. I'm thinking that point is around ten hours for me. I imagine I can get to a charger in that time frame or else bring an accessory battery pack. I notice in my 19 hour Singapore Air flights, my longest use time-interval, that the seats have powered USB ports.

[Kali Yuga]

Originally Posted by ebusinesstutor

I think the ereaders vs tablet discussion is a lot like PDAs vs cell phones....

Why, because it's one of the few cases where a multi-purpose device truly routed a dedicated one?

After all, video consoles -- which could easily be rolled into PC's -- are flourishing. Dedicated scanners, printers and faxes are also still around and doing fine, despite the ease of integrating them. You could replace almost all of the cutlery in your apartment with three sporks and a Swiss Army knife; so is that, in fact, what you do?

Anyway. Here's why ebook readers != PDA's.

• The hardware and software requirements of a PDA and a smartphone are nearly identical. E.g. both need light weight, decent battery life, an input method, software that syncs with other data, and so forth.

• "Reading" and "tablet use" only have a handful of characteristics in common, and some of those are at odds. E.g. a tablet needs to be good for video, an ebook reader does not.

• The limitations of an ebook reader can turn out to be highly beneficial for certain uses. For example, if I was a teacher I'd vastly prefer my students use a device that can only be used for reading books, than one that the student can easily switch in class to browse the web and respond to IM's.

• A fully integrated and multi-purpose tablet still does run the risk of interrupting the user (though I view this as a much lower risk than when tablets first came out).

• Readers are not a uniform group with similar buying habits; in particular, numerically most people only purchase a handful of books per year, while a small percentage of buyers purchase 10, 20 or more books per year -- and constitute an outsized part of the market.

In the same way that a DJ will prefer specialized software over iTunes, the heavy book buyers are much more likely to want a device that is optimized for reading than a multi-purpose device.

And Pixel Qi, if it ever does come out, is unlikely to change that equation.

[Belle2Be]

Originally Posted by DMcCunney

The screen is the principal battery draw in a handheld device, so a screen that only uses power when redrawing a page is a significant factor in battery life.

The big question is how much you really care.

For instance, my ebook viewer is a multi-function device - a PDA. It uses an LCD screen that requires a constant trickle of power to maintain. I keep screen brightness set as low as possibly while still being readable (which on my device is about 10%) to conserve the battery. But in practice, I recharge it nightly, so I seldom see the battery drop below 80% charged.

Charging various devices like PDA, cell phone, and laptop is a reflex. I've never encountered a problem where the battery totally drained because I forgot to charge something, because I don't forget to charge things.

So for me, extended battery life offered by an eInk screen is not a selling point, because I don't really care.

An additional issue is that I need color support for a fair bit of what I do and read, and that's not available for eInk. There are promising low power color displays beginning to appear, but they haven't been incorporated in a dedicated reader yet.

And a multi-purpose tablet will probably perform functions that inherently use more power (like displaying video), so they won't be able to match the reader's energy efficiency. If you're getting a multi-purpose tablet, you probably know that going in, and you don't expect to get efficiency comparable to a dedicated reader. You'll want efficiency at least comparable to a laptop and preferably better, so that you can do things like use it on a long airplane flight without running out of power mid-way.

Everyone is concerned with battery life. Current tablets hitting the streets use ARM CPUs, and lower power consumption has been an ARM design goal from the beginning. Low-power color displays like Qualcomm's Mirasol are starting to get design wins for the same reason. And there is continual research to improve the efficiency of batteries.

But if you insist on a device than can go a couple of weeks without a recharge, a tablet isn't what you get. And if you need a device that does other things besides display ebooks, you accept a trade-off in battery life.
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Dennis

I forget to charge things all the time. I've gone days without a cell phone, my laptop dies all the time, so to ME, battery life is extremely important.

Not to mention when I get stranded on a desert island and need to contact someone, I'll have 30 days instead of like, 2

[DMcCunney]

Originally Posted by DiapDealer

That makes sense to me. And I hope to always be able to make that choice... now, and in the future. But, I fear that the choice will be taken away from me at some point. If past technological trends are any indicator, then dedicated eReaders will eventually die out in favor of these multi-function devices that happen to support various eReader apps.

Not really. I'd call it a function of pricing. The cheapest tablet I can think of at the moment is the B&B nook color, at $249. That's sold as a reader, but once rooted, acquires all sorts of additional potentials, and rooting one is apparently fairly easy. You can get an Amazon Kindle for $139, and various "off brand" readers are available for $99 or lower.

As readers become more pervasive, they will become commodities with commodity pricing, and prices will drop further. Viewer software is certainly available to embed in the firmware. I expect cheap ebook reader devices to be around for the foreseeable future.

While I certainly won't belittle anyone who loves their swiss army knife, I prefer the simplicity of owning several "fixed" blades and a separate pair of tweezers.

I sympathize, but the question becomes just how many fixed blades you are willing to carry when you travel. The Swiss Army Knife is popular because it can do a number of things, and while it can't do them all well, it can do them well enough, and you don't have to carry a whole toolbox for the occasional instance where you'll need to do one of those things.

In the context of this discussion, I'm willing to carry around a tablet and a cell phone. I'm not willing to carry a tablet, a cell phone, and a reader, when the tablet can be a reader, and do so quite well.
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Dennis

[DMcCunney]

Originally Posted by Belle2Be

I forget to charge things all the time. I've gone days without a cell phone, my laptop dies all the time, so to ME, battery life is extremely important.

<shrug>

I made charging things a reflex I do out of habit. Chargers are hooked into the same power strip that handles my desktop. Before I go to bed, cell phone and PDA get hooked up.

The laptops are plugged into an A/C outlet at home, so they charge as a by-product.

I recognize that others folks do forget to charge things. Mine get used frequently and heavily enough that having them die of an exhausted battery in the middle of doing something is unacceptable, so I take pains and developed habits to insure it doesn't happen.

Not to mention when I get stranded on a desert island and need to contact someone, I'll have 30 days instead of like, 2

You expect to contact them by reader?
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Dennis