On Wed, Jan 20, 2010 at 1:28 PM, Michael Rigby-Jones
<Michael.Rigby-Jones@oclaro.com> wrote:

> Screen quality; the electronic paper display is far more like real paper
> than an LCD. =A0You can read them for extended periods without the
> eyestrain that LCD displays tend to give

In a way, this is important for book lovers. I do not read for extended
periods though. ;-) I think not many people will need to read books
for extended period of time, other than students/teachers.

However I think later LCDs can be improved to meet that
requirement. Or the screen on the eBook can be made cheaper
enough that multi-fucntion device can use that screen.

> Power consumption; Netbooks/laptops and PDAs typicaly don't have great
> battery life. =A0Since the displays on ebook readers consume zero power
> when the display is static and they have no backlight the battery life
> is amazing. =A0My wife charged hers on Christmas day and has used it
> everyday for a couple of hour since on the same charge (with wireless
> disabled). =A0It apparently will last 7 days with wireless enabled.

PDAs actually have good battery life, not like the Smart Phones,
since they do not have the phone part. But I agree the eBook
readers probably have better batter life.

> Weight and size; Netbooks and laptops are simply the wrong shape to be
> able to hold like a book and far too heavy. =A0PDAs are just too small.

I have no problems reading eBooks on PDAs. I've seen many other
people reading eBooks on their smart phones. Anyway, some
of them even watch TVs/Movies on the phones, why not eBook?

> One thing that irks me with the Kindle at least is that most ebooks are
> barely any cheaper than real ones. =A0Modern books will be in an
> electronic format prior to printing anyway, so at most it would need to
> be converted to the appropriate ebook format and made available on the
> server used for distribution. =A0No paper, printing, transport or waste
> (i.e. unsold books) costs which should (IMO) give a sizeable cost
> saving.
>

This is because Amazon still sells paper based books. If Apple
(or Google, or others) is selling ebooks in its application store,
probably it would be cheaper. On the hand, this is saying that
the market is still small.

Overall I still think eBook reader will be a niche market and
will probably go down the road of PDAs with only a few years
of good time.


-- =

Xiaofan http://mcuee.blogspot.com

-- =

http://www.piclist.com PIC/SX FAQ & list archive
View/change your membership options at
http://mailman.mit.edu/mailman/listinfo/piclist