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Comment by desireco42 | Hacker News Reader

I am like you, here is my money, just get me a larger format kindle, or kobo for that matter.

You can't read comic books or magazines in such small edition.

Kobo honestly looks better. There must be some technical challenge to issue something 7-8" sized.

Personal theory from watching Nook shoppers, ebook readers are for book readers. I'm not being glib, they are for people who read paperback books. That is the market.

I've seldom seen a person go from Nook to the magazine displays. The same is true from Nook to larger format book sections like bookmaker or tech books.

The remaining market probably, and this is just my opinion from watching tech conversations, is to small to support with existing margins the cost of a larger form factor with the larger resolution screens. I haven't even seen a Kickstarter for such a device. The screens exist. The ability to get the other parts exist. The market for such a product does not, apparently.

Agreed. For reading (primarily) flowing text, I find the Kindle Paperwhite just about perfect. Really light to hold in one hand, great battery life, easy on the eyes.

If I'm reading a graphic novel or a technical book with illustrations, code, etc. I much prefer my full-size tablet--which I don't like as much for just reading.

The issue with the larger screen I suspect is that you're now competing with full-size tablets with a much more specialized device that that would probably be judged inferior to its smaller sibling by many people for plain reading. It feels like a very slim market.

ADDED: I actually forgot that there used to be a Kindle DX. Given that format doesn't exist any longer, I'm pretty sure that it didn't sell well.

The DX was also super expensive though -- like $450 if I remember correctly.

Regular Kindles weren't cheap initially though. I forget when the DX came out but I paid something like $300 for my second gen Kindle.

Amazon ran a promotion on the DX at one point for $250, when I got mine. I'm glad I did.

I have Nook 9", it is perfect sized and even today good tablet. Since they had to do custom plug, if I forget to charge it, it will linger. It is slow but works well for reading.

Who would read comic books on a monochromatic display? :D There're tablets for that :P

Comics can be black and white - I grew up reading one called The Phantom decades ago printed in b&w, and more recently I read The Walking Dead comics that are b&w too.

Also, most manga is 90+% percent black and white, with many series having at most maybe one or two colored splash pages per issue, or the occasional promotional or plot climax issue that's all color.

Plenty of the popular comics in Italy are published in b&w too, color was only used for premium/special editions.

I bet iPad Pro + Comixology =

That is definitely sick combination. And very pricy. :)

I use an older iPad and it does great for comics, but there are lots of monochromatic comics out there, just not necessarily the popular cape stuff.

There is basically a single supplier for eInk displays. If they thought they could do volume at a larger size, I bet they would do it. However the number of people who want large black & white e-readers is probably quite small.

a color ebook reader for comics would be like a gaming console for kids

The basic problem with that is that comics these days are too expensive. $4-$5 for 26 pages? Yeesh.

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