The one who takes e-books to the educational sector, universities, and introduce an infrastructure for renting and buying educational litterature will take a significant lead.
I bought Kindle 2 after trying out the Kindle app on the iPhone. I'm a graduate student in Japan and needed a textbook. Who had it? Amazon, but so did the Kindle store. It was a no-brainer purchase.
No way am I going back to the iPhone app if I have the Kindle 2 at the same time. If not for the more appropriate Kindle screen, then it's due to the iPhone 3G's battery life. I'd delete the app altogether, but I live in Japan where I can't get content wirelessly, so I keep the app as a backup.
Don't think I'd need a bigger version for newspapers. The iPhone actually taught me to tolerate with constant scrolling or dealing with segmented webpages. The Kindle 2 is fine as it is.
It's a little ironic that Apple itself had driven me to buy a Kindle because they're evidently against netbooks. Even then, lying in my bed or sitting on the subway, and reading the 100 pages I have to read for just one class on a netbook is simply lame, and in Japan, I can live without having another book take up my limited space. That's what the Kindle does for me. It lets me read a book or text material in a manner that allows it to resemble a book. I also appreciate Amazon's file conversion service, so I can read through the interview I just transcribed and not have to lug a computer around or waste precious iPhone battery.
I've been a big proponent of all-in-one devices for years, and it's why I love the iPhone. But it's also obvious and clear that no device can do everything perfectly. The iPhone is a joke for even semi-dedicated gamers, and it's my personal joke for a serious reading device. None of Apple's current laptops can compete with the Kindle on battery life, weight and service for reading books, and in the time it takes to hack a netbook to run OSX, I can actually get real research done.
Whether or not a better device comes out in a few years is totally irrelevant for me because I certainly don't want to stay in school forever.
As both the Atom and ARM get more powerful, and use less current, where will these bookreaders fit in?
I can't find a place for them.
They're going to have to use a *lot* less current to have battery life rivaling my Kindle 2. And they'll need an always-on no-monthly-charge network too. I'm not sure why you think that bookreaders won't fit in; it seems to me that you are basing your argument on these future devices having more functionality and processing power, neither of which factors in to the Kindle's success. It is good at what it does, and it doesn't need to be good at the sort of general computing/multi-media stuff that other devices do or might do.
FYI: a Word document with standard margins on a 8.5" x 11" piece of paper has 9.7" of text. Since the Kindle has very little margins, the difference should be negligible.
They're going to have to use a *lot* less current to have battery life rivaling my Kindle 2. And they'll need an always-on no-monthly-charge network too. I'm not sure why you think that bookreaders won't fit in; it seems to me that you are basing your argument on these future devices having more functionality and processing power, neither of which factors in to the Kindle's success. It is good at what it does, and it doesn't need to be good at the sort of general computing/multi-media stuff that other devices do or might do.
I don't think they'll fit, because as I've now said a dozen times here, that as portable computers get more powerful, they will take over the function of the Kindle AND be a real computer as well. You are just one of a fairly small number of people who has bought one of these. The one my friend has dosn't look all that great while reading, and is a pain to have to carry around, in addition to anything else needed. Just one more piece of crap to have.
It won't be that much longer until a computer the size and weight of the Kindle appears, with adequate battery life, which is really about 10 hours or so, just enough to get one through a full day. Plugging something in at night is a no brainer. The forty hours just comes from the display, which is only fair, has no color, and only 16 shades of grey, with no true white or black.
We don't need a no-charge network, because we all have phones. Anyone who will to buy one of these things will likely have data service with it anyway. This is just a very limited, extra duplicated service.
Computers in the future will combine many of these functions, as have our phones now.
We don't know what Apple is planning as far as a small tablet, which is what the kindle is in a very function limited way. We also don't know if Apple is going to give us some version of a netbook.
The remarks from Tim Cook at least twice now, leads us to believe that Apple is definately cooking (no pun intended) something up. What, we don't know. When, well, we don't know that either.
But I believe the WSJ and Routers when they say Apple has ordered, or at least has looked into, 10" displays. Those are two services that have had very good records on what Apple is doing.
So what would be the point to a stand-alone reader? I simply can't find one.
Comments
Big Device, Big Arms...Big FAILURE.
Bring it on Apple.....
Yeah- like WHEN????
The one who takes e-books to the educational sector, universities, and introduce an infrastructure for renting and buying educational litterature will take a significant lead.
No way am I going back to the iPhone app if I have the Kindle 2 at the same time. If not for the more appropriate Kindle screen, then it's due to the iPhone 3G's battery life. I'd delete the app altogether, but I live in Japan where I can't get content wirelessly, so I keep the app as a backup.
Don't think I'd need a bigger version for newspapers. The iPhone actually taught me to tolerate with constant scrolling or dealing with segmented webpages. The Kindle 2 is fine as it is.
It's a little ironic that Apple itself had driven me to buy a Kindle because they're evidently against netbooks. Even then, lying in my bed or sitting on the subway, and reading the 100 pages I have to read for just one class on a netbook is simply lame, and in Japan, I can live without having another book take up my limited space. That's what the Kindle does for me. It lets me read a book or text material in a manner that allows it to resemble a book. I also appreciate Amazon's file conversion service, so I can read through the interview I just transcribed and not have to lug a computer around or waste precious iPhone battery.
I've been a big proponent of all-in-one devices for years, and it's why I love the iPhone. But it's also obvious and clear that no device can do everything perfectly. The iPhone is a joke for even semi-dedicated gamers, and it's my personal joke for a serious reading device. None of Apple's current laptops can compete with the Kindle on battery life, weight and service for reading books, and in the time it takes to hack a netbook to run OSX, I can actually get real research done.
Whether or not a better device comes out in a few years is totally irrelevant for me because I certainly don't want to stay in school forever.
As both the Atom and ARM get more powerful, and use less current, where will these bookreaders fit in?
I can't find a place for them.
They're going to have to use a *lot* less current to have battery life rivaling my Kindle 2. And they'll need an always-on no-monthly-charge network too. I'm not sure why you think that bookreaders won't fit in; it seems to me that you are basing your argument on these future devices having more functionality and processing power, neither of which factors in to the Kindle's success. It is good at what it does, and it doesn't need to be good at the sort of general computing/multi-media stuff that other devices do or might do.
They're going to have to use a *lot* less current to have battery life rivaling my Kindle 2. And they'll need an always-on no-monthly-charge network too. I'm not sure why you think that bookreaders won't fit in; it seems to me that you are basing your argument on these future devices having more functionality and processing power, neither of which factors in to the Kindle's success. It is good at what it does, and it doesn't need to be good at the sort of general computing/multi-media stuff that other devices do or might do.
I don't think they'll fit, because as I've now said a dozen times here, that as portable computers get more powerful, they will take over the function of the Kindle AND be a real computer as well. You are just one of a fairly small number of people who has bought one of these. The one my friend has dosn't look all that great while reading, and is a pain to have to carry around, in addition to anything else needed. Just one more piece of crap to have.
It won't be that much longer until a computer the size and weight of the Kindle appears, with adequate battery life, which is really about 10 hours or so, just enough to get one through a full day. Plugging something in at night is a no brainer. The forty hours just comes from the display, which is only fair, has no color, and only 16 shades of grey, with no true white or black.
We don't need a no-charge network, because we all have phones. Anyone who will to buy one of these things will likely have data service with it anyway. This is just a very limited, extra duplicated service.
Computers in the future will combine many of these functions, as have our phones now.
We don't know what Apple is planning as far as a small tablet, which is what the kindle is in a very function limited way. We also don't know if Apple is going to give us some version of a netbook.
The remarks from Tim Cook at least twice now, leads us to believe that Apple is definately cooking (no pun intended
But I believe the WSJ and Routers when they say Apple has ordered, or at least has looked into, 10" displays. Those are two services that have had very good records on what Apple is doing.
So what would be the point to a stand-alone reader? I simply can't find one.