“The E-Reader, as we know it, is doomed” | Hacker News Reader

“The E-Reader, as we know it, is doomed”

marco.org

9 pointsshawndumas8 comments

Even with its many faults, you will claw my Kindle from my cold dead hand. I emphatically do not want an interactive color screen for reading books.

I just love e-ink. For me, e-ink is the only discriminating factor between an ebook and a tablet.

Yeah I think for the hardcore reading market (small in # of people last I had heard, but a significant portion of the books bought) are going to want eink for reading. I have an android tablet and a nook, but I only use the tablet for my ebook reading when it's a kindle book or my nook needs to charge and I don't want to stop reading.

Marco is right. Sure, colour e-readers would be nice, as would ones with faster update speeds. Mirasol's Kyobo looks rather nice for this. But unless they can also keep the battery life up people aren't going to shift to them.

And then there's form factor. My Kobo e-reader sits handily in my coat pocket, and there's no way a 10" tablet is going to do that. The Kindle Touch is 17cm by 12cm, and that's pretty much perfect for reading novels. It's not perfect for reading comics on, or watching videos - for that I'd rather have at least a 10" screen.

So I suspect that convergence just isn't going to happen - we're going to be left with a range of devices - 3-4" phones, 6-7" tablet/ereaders and 10" tablets for video.

I've always thought e-readers are bit like calculators. Great purpose built devices that will eventually end up being useful features on more general purpose devices.

I agree that e-readers offer a way better experience today and at some point, all of what consumers appreciate about an e-reader will probably be available in tablets, etc.

Kindle is interesting because it is trying to avoid being a feature by creating an ecosystem of services around the feature. But still, ereader as app/feature seems to make more sense over the long term...

I still have a calculator on my desk.

E-reading via app on a multipurpose device probably does make more sense for the largest number of people, but that doesn't mean the market for dedicated e-readers won't persist.

Yeah, I agree with that. I just don't think it will be a very large or important market. Sorta like the market for calculators, which is limited to those interested in curiosities, the nostalgic buyer and those with highly specialized needs.

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