Ramblings of an e-ink fanatic:)

[SnowRipple]

I am following the e-ink devices and their evolution for many years now as many people here. And it makes me angry. Really angry.

E-ink is no doubt a revolutionary technology. It has a potential of replacing the paper and LCD/backlighted devices for a number of applications. Reading, writing, making notes, notes management etc.

But the pace in which e-readers are developed is so SLOW!

I had to wait years for a e-reader with decent pdf handling, then years for an e-reader with bigger screen and touchscreen, then big screen,touch and frontlight, now I have to wait years for an e-reader I could use as a secondary screen with decent refresh rate. I won't even mention color e-ink or flexible newspaper-like ereaders that we are teased with for so many years!

I wonder where lies the problem. In the same time, phones, tablets, and computers accomplished so much more! Every year some revolution happens, lately even smartwatches are evolving in the faster pace that e-ink devices!

I know, many people will say that e-ink market is so much smaller but I disagree! After all e-ink has potential to replace paper for so many tasks! This is a HUGE market!

There are quite many companies out there right now that produce e-readers but all of them are so similar to each other. I can't think about anything revolutionary happening in the e-ink community in 2016...A little better processor, better look, more RAM - it's not revolution, barely evolution.

In my opinion, one of the reasons is that none of the big companies are currently involved in this market. Yes, you think about Amazon. Oh, couple years ago when Amazon released Kindle DX, frontligt, touch - these were revolutions! But lately, Kindle Voyage and Oasis, are not revolutionary in any sense: more fashionable build, little better processor, RAM and ridiculuos price tags.

If you bought first Paperwhite you are not really convinced to update it to newer version, because you won't get much extra for your money. It seems to me that Amazon assumed that they achieved everything that can be achieved here and are like Apple with their iphones - just brushing some details every year.

But the biggest culprint for me is E-ink Company. It seems like the completely gave up on research! Across so many years we go only 3 iterations of e-ink :Pearl, Carta, Mobius - that's not enough! What happpened with Color E-ink (Triton) that we were teased with every major conference! They latest idea: 42'' display that can be used instead a white board for thousands of dollars (in collaboration with QuirkLogic). I can already see these queues before shops to get them.. Yet another product that will be forgotten in couple months..

What is the main reason of e-ink not being popular? The ridiculuos prizes of e-ink screens. The big chunk (if not the biggest) of each e-reader is the prize of the screen. Did E-ink Company did anything to lower the cost od manufacturing them? Obviously, they didn't do enough! They will never replace paper if they will costs couple hundreds dollars per each screen!

Maybe the best symbol of the whole situation is the story of IMX7 processor that's optimized for e-ink devices. According to various sources it will remove ghosting and drastically improve the refresh rate - a real revolution. Th first time I heard about it was in the fall 2015. Now we have approaching spring 2017 and... not even a single rumor that we will see an e-reader with IMX7 anytime soon... Yes, it takes years to incorporate a new processor in a e-reader...This is ridiculous!

I don't see any signs that the situation will change in the future. And it makes me angry, really angry..

[rkomar]

Perhaps you should educate yourself about how E-Ink really works, and then your anger might go away. It's actually pretty amazing that it works as well as it does right now, and that's thanks to a lot of research and development.

A lot of the improvements in ereaders have come from better CPUs, memory, batteries,... all off-the-shelf components that are slowly evolving to be better. The ereader market is too small to drive major improvements in any of those parts, and can only piggyback on progress driven by other products.

I think your expectations are way too high for these small market devices, and that's what's driving your frustration.

[barryem]

One reason tablets and phones have advanced so much in the same time that e-ink ereaders have gone a lot slower is that tablets and phones were made by companies wanting to make a profit selling tablets and phones and people wanted them.

Ereaders, on the other hand, are made by companies to help them sell books. They believe their best move isn't to make money on the devices but to sell them as cheap as possible so they can sell more books. Since the devices aren't what they make their money on their makers aren't putting as much energy into improving them.

Another reason e-ink ereaders aren't selling as well and aren't being made in the same variety as phones and tablets is because of phones and tablets. In fact the same is now becoming true of tablets. They've pretty much stopped improving in recent years because of larger phones.

An easy way to sum it up is simply lack of demand. Ereaders used to be big sellers. Now people are reading more on their phones and ereaders don't sell as well as they used to. I doubt if anyone is happy about this but that's how it is and it's easy enough to see why.

Barry

[JSWolf]

Another reason Reader aren't selling as well is that a lot of people already have one and are not upgrading as what they have does them just fine.

[jhowell]

E-ink is good for low power consumption display of static gray scale images under a wide variety of lighting conditions. But it has problems with color and motion which prevent it from being used on mainstream devices. I believe that those problems are inherent in the technology and aren't going away.

I would be happy with a technology that combined the color, speed and resolution of LCD with the ability to provide a nice display under the variety of lighting conditions supported by e-ink. I care about features, not the underlying technology.

[theducks]

product developer Managers are about PROFIT.

What happened was a number of Book Pushers adopted the 'Kodak' model: Sell the Camera cheap and make it on Film and processing. That pretty much killed Independent Device development as the Retail price went outside the sweet spot for VOLUME sales.

How many current e-ink devices DO NOT have a Store attached? (how often do you read here at MR, that folk are now having problems side-loading content. Those suppliers are continuously adding layers to their walled garden, trying to keep sales in house.

e-ink displays cost way more than the LCD found in many devices, again, putting those at a major disadvantage in the modern, "I want it cheap", marketplace. The number of folk like us, who love e-ink displays are not enough to support, even at premium prices, development and marketing effort

[pluma]

EXCELLENT rambling!!!

I share with you many points specifically the part about SIZE. 6" screen is a effin joke for any serious reading and as a format for text material. It pretty much goes against thousand of years of text format evolution.

If you notice the big brands are the LAST one to innovate or come up with new sizes (amazon DX pos at $600 doesn't count).

At around two year lesser known brands started to come up with alternative sizes prices range was ok if seeing as an investment.

Then more brands offered alternative sizes until KOBO came up with 7.8", which still not ideal size but an improvement.

Does Amazon or BN Nook have a similar device no. Shockingly completely the opposite!!

Amazon last summer came up with pos Oasis device and reviews all over the net raving how Oasis was the definite reader once and for all.

Are you fng kidding me??!! When I first read I assumed it had a bigger screen and such but I was speechless after finding out that it was another 6" at almost 300$, without audio jack, wthout SD card .etc.

I mean, who are they trying to fool??

Anyways as another post here, I guess it comes to PROFITS, amazon can abuse their position foolling millions of ppl with a 300$ 6".

I was sorta shocked when I went to my electronics chain and see all paper price info tags replaced by 7" e-ink with RED COLOR as well!!!

WAIT WHAT???!! Yes, 7" e-ink screens wifi that can be easily stolen just for putting the price!!

Something is awfully wrong. But what can we do? I guess is support lesser brands that truly innovate and cater readers needs, and not Amazon PROFIT vampire with their bullshit devices.

6" inches devices need to have a horrible death.

sorry for the rant.

[bgalbrecht]

Another thing I hate is that all of the (US) ebook readers have dropped the micro SD slot in favor of a small memory internal memory. If you want to read comics or side-load a bunch of books from other retailers or public domain libraries, you'll rapidly run out of room because the retailer wants you to download a small number of books from their cloud when you want to read one.

Except for when I'm reading some technical non-fiction, I'm not convinced I need a 7.8" screen. My Kobo Glo HD easily fits in a pocket, is about the same size as a paperback book, and I was able to easily upgrade it to 64GB storage. It may well be my last ereader if I can figure out how to replace the battery when it starts dying several years from now, unless the next generation has at least the same resolution as now, decent color screens, as in good color reproduction, but not necessarily fast enough refresh rate to watch a movie, and at least 64GB storage, preferably expandable to more.

[robko]

Originally Posted by jhowell

But it has problems with color and motion which prevent it from being used on mainstream devices. I believe that those problems are inherent in the technology and aren't going away.

This pretty much sums up why e-ink hasn't had huge improvements. The other fact is that cheap, multi-use tablets have definitely taken a big bite out of e-readers. Personally, I like my e-ink reader and I don't see going away from it and if it breaks I'll replace it with another e-ink reader.

Originally Posted by theducks

(how often do you read here at MR, that folk are now having problems side-loading content. Those suppliers are continuously adding layers to their walled garden, trying to keep sales in house.

I'd challenge that statement about sideloading. I can't say I've ever heard of anyone having a problem sideloading content ONTO the device. The closest you could come is Nook restricting the amount of space you could use for sideloaded content. Increased/changed DRM from the stores preventing you from freeing your book so you can use it elsewhere is a completely different issue to being able to put your DRM free content onto your device.

[bgalbrecht]

Originally Posted by robko

I'd challenge that statement about sideloading. I can't say I've ever heard of anyone having a problem sideloading content ONTO the device. The closest you could come is Nook restricting the amount of space you could use for sideloaded content. Increased/changed DRM from the stores preventing you from freeing your book so you can use it elsewhere is a completely different issue to being able to put your DRM free content onto your device.

I'm an outlier, but between things like all the sales at Fictionwise, Project Gutenberg, the 3000 ebook giveaway at Amazon by Open Road Media, other freebies, replacement of stuff I own on paper when the price drops to $2 or less, and my ebooks purchased from at least 8 different stores, I've never had room for my entire collection on internal memory of any ereader I've purchased (well, maybe my original Nook did when I first bought it). I think the loss of external micro SDHC slots is probably partly because the average ereader owner either doesn't own more than 4 GB or books, or is OK with only loading a dozen or two books on their reader at any given time, but it's probably also partly because it helps promote the retailer walled garden, where the only easy way to read books is to buy from the retailer selling your ereader.

Also, since at least a half-dozen of the retailers I've purchased books from shut down, and either the books can't be downloaded from anyone again, or if they've been moved to another retailer, some books disappear, and even at the retailers that have been there from day one, some books disappear anyway, so if I can't download the books to a computer and sideload them onto my latest ereader, I don't trust the retailers' cloud libraries enough let them be responsible for my library.

[Katsunami]

Originally Posted by barryem

An easy way to sum it up is simply lack of demand. Ereaders used to be big sellers. Now people are reading more on their phones and ereaders don't sell as well as they used to. I doubt if anyone is happy about this but that's how it is and it's easy enough to see why.

And, if you look back through the history, the masses will always choose the cheapest, and often least appropriate device for a task. Some hints...

Betamax vs. VHS. Winner: VHS.
Firewire vs. USB. Winner: USB.
SCSI vs. IDE: Winner: IDE.
IPS/PVA vs TN panels: Winner: TN (although some really cheap versions of IPS now have been developed; but TN is still cheaper).
Mechanical keyboards vs. Rubber Dome: Winner: Rubber Dome
Plasma vs. LCD: Winner: LCD (plasma is MUCH better in everything, except energy; but when that started to improve, most companies had already quit.)

And so on.... it's always the cheapest stuff that wins, or devices aren't bought because another device can also 'somewhat do it''. I wouldn't want to read a book in sunlight on a tablet or phone when I'm in public transport...

[Pajamaman]

Amazon is not interested in innovating in e-ink and they are sitting on the US market like a big fat man. So that explains the lack of innovation there. But kobo has shown there is a market for bigger e-readers. I guess the profit is not big enough for Amazon. It's easier to put a new shape case on and buttons and charge big bucks. Shame that. Guess they learned from Apple.

From China we are seeing innovation. Onyx is consistently bringing out new format sizes And now other companies are getting into the action. There are a number of other companies now looking at producing and selling big e-readers. So there is hope there will be more products and prices will drop. But of course larger e-ink displays are a niche product. But one can buy e-ink Android tablets so that is good news.

But yes, it is sad there is less development of e-ink, but it is the market.

[Katsunami]

Originally Posted by JSWolf

Another reason Reader aren't selling as well is that a lot of people already have one and are not upgrading as what they have does them just fine.

True. If Kobo hadn't released a 7.8 inch reader, I'd never have bought one to replace my 4 year old KPW1. The 6.8 inch versions were not enough of a difference to the KPW1.

The improvements that entice me to upgrade are:
1. Better/more fonts and options
2. Better/more layout options
3. Better screen
4. Better software/connection to Calibre
5. Good reading statistics (optional)

Current Kobo's are already quite good with regard to these points, although I'd like more serif fonts out of the box, official full screen mode, and official capability to add weight to user-loaded fonts (without a patch). 7.8 (maybe 8, but I don't know because I have no such reader) feels like the perfect size, as it allows me to put around 58-62 characters on one line at my preferred font size (when using Georgia).

If Kobo would have te stability/reliability of the Kindle firmware, they'd have the perfect e-reader, at least for me.

I don't care about anything such as Facebook, Twitter, Goodreads, Pocket, or whatever other online functionality.

[nabsltd]

Originally Posted by Katsunami

If Kobo would have the stability/reliability of the Kindle firmware, they'd have the perfect e-reader, at least for me.

No closed (i.e., not Android or other OS that allows install of any app) reader that supports EPUB will ever be as stable as Kindle.

Amazon builds the devices, writes the firmware, designs the ebook format, and forces ebook creators to fix errors that cause gross rendering issues.

Kobo has to deal with EPUBs written by anybody, and you can have some really bad HTML/CSS that still meets the EPUB spec. The hardest part is dealing with the interaction between the user options (font, font size, margins) and the infinite possibilities in HTML/CSS.

In addition, Kobo has to deal with DRM they didn't write (Adobe) and allow users to get books onto the device from basically any source. They have also tried to be more user-friendly, and dived into the abyss that is Overdrive.

Given all that, they really have a much better product than Kindle, seeing as how some features that Kobo has long supported (hyphenation, for example) have only recently appeared for Kindle.

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by Katsunami

IPS/PVA vs TN panels: Winner: TN (although some really cheap versions of IPS now have been developed; but TN is still cheaper).

IPS is gaining enough ground that TN will eventually lose.

Plasma vs. LCD: Winner: LCD (plasma is MUCH better in everything, except energy; but when that started to improve, most companies had already quit.)

LCD has gotten much better and then there is OLED on the horizon onceprices drop.

Blu-ray vs HD-DVD and the winner is Blu-Ray the better format.