The Death of E-Readers Is All Your Fault

[kennyc]

Originally Posted by Ripplinger

What do you mean no sex?! My 350s are damn sexy!!!!

Are you saying.......

[QuantumIguana]

Originally Posted by jocampo

Hmmm, interesting... The can opener analogy, lol ...

So why iphones sell like hotcakes? If, like can openers, most people have one already, same or different brand.

There's a world of difference between a dedicated e-reader and an iPhone. A dedicated e-reader just reads books - there's not much you can offer the customer to persuade them to upgrade to the newest model, just like it's really a hard sell to get someone to upgrade to the newest model of a can opener. As long as single-function devices perform their task, people are less likely to get the new model.

A iPhone isn't really a phone at all. It's a portable computer that just happens to make phone calls. Few people upgrade to the new model of the iPhone based on the telephone functionality. With computers - whether that computer is a desktop, laptop, tablet or smartphone -, there is always a "killer app" that just won't work with the previous model.

With e-books, as long as the format is supported, the reader will never become obsolete. If I dust off a Windows 95 computer, that computer will be of very little use. I could run some very old programs, but not anything new. But a dedicated e-reader will continue to work just as well until it breaks, assuming that the format isn't abandoned. There's just far less incentive to upgrade a dedicated e-reader than there is to upgrade a general purpose device.

[kennyc]

Oh good I thought we'd missed the Hotcake discussion.

Honey or Maple Syrup?

[fjtorres]

Originally Posted by kennyc

Oh good I thought we'd missed the Hotcake discussion.

Honey or Maple Syrup?

Maple, of course.

Don't think the thread is perfect yet, though.
We need a car chase scene. Preferably in San Francisco.
Although if the budget is short we can try Dayton, Ohio.

[BeccaPrice]

and bacon. Don't forget, we need bacon.

[kennyc]

Dusky is in charge of the bacon!

[DustyDisks]

Originally Posted by kennyc

Dusky is in charge of the bacon!

I will drive anytime or almost anywhere for dat bacon!

[cfrizz]

Originally Posted by kennyc

No, this is not true for me or for others as was explained above. It may be true for you, but that is far from universal.

Thank you Kenny! It is also NOT true for me. I have spent entire days in front of my pc reading ebooks and before I got ebooks I was reading fan fiction on my pc.

I have also spent hours reading on my Sony reader and hours reading from my Samsung Galaxy 5 MP. all WITHOUT eyestrain.

People need to stop trying to shoehorn everyone else in the world into their own personal universe/preference!

[Shushan]

okay! We have bacon and hotcakes WITH maple syrup. All that's lacking is an egg or two. Where'd that guilty chicken go?

[Greg Anos]

Originally Posted by fjtorres

There is no such thing as junk DNA. It turns out the non-coding regions are very important. That is why even the slightest mutation will either kill the embryo or split it. And statistically "kill" is the usual outcome and "split" (aka, Twin) is rare.

And no, I don't play an expert anywhere, but I've been tracking developments in molecular biology since I took BioChem in college (notgoing to admit just how long ago). It's one of the top three technologies that will mold the 21st century along with materials science and cybernetics. There's wonders ahead.

Yay! B.A. in Micro/Molecular Biology 1979.

Oh and by the way - methylation anyone....

[jocampo]

Originally Posted by QuantumIguana

There's a world of difference between a dedicated e-reader and an iPhone. A dedicated e-reader just reads books - there's not much you can offer the customer to persuade them to upgrade to the newest model, just like it's really a hard sell to get someone to upgrade to the newest model of a can opener. As long as single-function devices perform their task, people are less likely to get the new model.

A iPhone isn't really a phone at all. It's a portable computer that just happens to make phone calls. Few people upgrade to the new model of the iPhone based on the telephone functionality. With computers - whether that computer is a desktop, laptop, tablet or smartphone -, there is always a "killer app" that just won't work with the previous model.

With e-books, as long as the format is supported, the reader will never become obsolete. If I dust off a Windows 95 computer, that computer will be of very little use. I could run some very old programs, but not anything new. But a dedicated e-reader will continue to work just as well until it breaks, assuming that the format isn't abandoned. There's just far less incentive to upgrade a dedicated e-reader than there is to upgrade a general purpose device.

And a world of difference between a can opener and an ereader, don't you think? ;-)

My point is, everything depends of demand and offer, and the created necessity for a device. We have been convinced that we need a phone every 2 years but we can actually keep using the one we had 5 years ago. As a matter of fact, I own a Motorola Rzr that still works like a charm.

The thing with ereaders is that the market (and demand) for multi-purpose devices is now bigger. The fact that a device can still work without changes does not necessary means it won't be upgraded for a newest one. In my opinion, the created necessity is what dictates that.

Of course, support or lack of it, can force a replacement, but in some cases it will not, like I said, with cellphones, even cars.

[theinfamousj]

Originally Posted by cromag

I've never seen anyone reading on an Ipad in a waiting room (my wife has an Ipad, but doesn't do much reading on it) -- or any kind of tablet or smartphone.

Then I can tell you've never seen me. Though I have a Kobo, I have logged more reading hours on my smart phone than any other device.

[QuantumIguana]

Originally Posted by jocampo

And a world of difference between a can opener and an ereader, don't you think? ;-)

Not at all. While they perform quite different functions, both are single-function devices that people have little need to upgrade and tend to replace only when the item no longer works. There's not a whole lot you can do to an e-reader that makes people feel they simply must have the new model.

In contrast, devices such as smartphones and tablets people are much more likely to upgrade. These devices do become obsolete fairly quickly, while dedicated e-readers do not.

My main point was that the initial growth in e-reader sales was people buying their first e-reader. It would be a mistake to expect that same rate of sales to continue. Once the market becomes saturated, the number of first-time buyers becomes small, and the remainder of the market is people replacing their devices, and people aren't that highly motivated to replace their dedicated e-reader with a new dedicated e-reader. The decrease in sales doesn't predict the end of the e-reader, only the end of the initial stage of rapid growth in e-reader sales.

It's simply a very different market from the tablet market. With a tablet you can say "Sure, you like Angry Birds, but if you want to play Angrier Birds, you need to upgrade", and people will. The new tablet offers something substantially different than the previous model. Perhaps they don't need Angrier Birds, but it's a feature that persuades people to upgrade. With dedicated e-readers, however, it just reads books, so it's much harder to add features to entice people to upgrade.

[kennyc]

Yeah, it's more like the sausage market.
Or maybe the black market.

[Sweetpea]

Originally Posted by Jasmine GreenTea

I could not have said better! You hit the nail in the head!

Indeed, eInk = no eye strain,
LCD = eye strain

I was vainly trying to plain this to people who are enraptured by their tablets and see them as the best solution for reading digital material. They just wouldn't get it.

So, now I just ask them simply: "How many pages are you reading a month? Oh, 100 to 150! Then it's OK, I see why you're perfectly happy with a teblet! But just try reading 100-150 pages a day and then we talk..!"

I have to work all day behind a PC. I read on my tablet. Even in the dark. And yet I never have problems with eye strain. I only get problems with eye strain when I try to read on my e-ink device when I should have used my tablet.

Besides, what are pages to you? On my Mini, I read more pages than on my tablet, simply because my tablet holds more letters per "page"... (I do have pages on my Mini, as I reformat my books to PDF, made up for a 5" screen). And sometimes (when I'm more tired), I'll increase the font size, so I'll read more "pages" than other times, when I decrease the font size.

In short, each device has its uses. I personally won't use my e-ink device in winter and I won't use my tablet in summer.


Edit:

Oh yes, it's absolutely my fault that I like my devices so much I won't even consider replacing them! Besides, if you hold the PRS650 and that new plastic thing from Sony, you can understand why I wouldn't even dream about replacing that one...