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Freescale's Cheap Chip Could Mean Sub-$99 E-Readers
eldavojohn writes "Last week, Freescale Semiconductor announced their i.MX508 chip and a few days ago released a rather bland and boring announcement that it's available. But there was at least one interesting line from that press release, 'The i.MX508 applications processor is expected to be priced at less than $10 (USD) in quantities greater than 250K units.' Yes, less than ten dollars. This sparked a wave of articles detailing how this new chip will allow the sub-$99 e-reader to emerge and according to market research, consumers are thirsty for something much more affordable than the Kindle."
consumers are thirsty for something much more affordable than the Kindle.
I know I sure as hell am. The price of entry is the only thing that has stopped me from getting an eReader. I would love to not go over $100 for a good-quality eReader, but $150 would be my firm limit. I realize that e-ink screens are the primary thing driving the prices up for now, but hopefully with things like this new chip combined with new processes of putting together e-ink screens will bring the price down.
Despite how much I complain about it around here, I would be willing to pay the same if not slightly higher for ebooks as I would for dead tree books if only the eReader itself wasn't so damn expensive.
Living With a Nerd
Cheaper than the Kindle, and OPEN. Meet those two criteria and they'll sell by the boat-load.
"I might have made a tactical error in not going to a physician for 20 years." -- Warren Zevon
...it's got a lot of "wow" factor, but just wait for the price on the technology to drop before you buy one- eventually, the e-ink tech is going to become as ubiquitous as the flash drive. Amazon did a good job of creating a great device, but eventually there are going to be so many clones out there that locking yourself into Amazon's platform (essentilly, Amazon was copying iTunes model) at such an early start might hit your pocketbook kinda hard... Just wait for cheap-ass readers, and then the publishing industry to set up their own store(s).
This is going to be an interesting battleground, especially in the education text-book market.
How about someone just creates an e-ink display and no processor that can be hooked up to net/note book.
by TheSpoom (715771) Uncaring Linux user here. I have nothing to add to this but please continue. *munches popcorn*
I agree that a lower price point is desirable but I'm still planning to wait until the page refresh process on these things is more acceptable. There is an annoying delay for every page turn, and most of the ereaders I've played with (at least 20 different models at CES this year) have a really annoying black screen in between page turns while the e-ink particles rearrange themselves. The delay and rearranging isn't so bad if you are just reading one book at a time always from start to finish, but it becomes really frustrating if you are skipping around or browsing through various documents and you want to navigate from one document to another like you might do while web browsing or working with legal briefs, etc. I would love to see e-ink technology improve to the point that one can use these things for browsing large quantities of documents -- this would be an incredible tool for researchers and educators. I'd be willing to pay current $250+ prices for one of these that was usable for such tasks, but at the moment we're still a couple years away from that.
I like being able to hold (and turn the pages of) what would otherwise be an 800-page hardcover book in one hand while standing on the train, then slip it in my jacket pocket when I reach my stop.
If you do all your reading at home where you don't need to carry your books around, there's not really much reason to have one.
Sturgeon was an optimist.
The only real justification for a dedicated e-reader device is that it can be locked to a company's book service. If the device is "open", it'll contain many more functions (free or very minimal cost) and look more like a laptop or iPad.
Right now you can download text versions of thousands of books - and Notepad is all you need to read them. If I'm going to have a special device just for reading books it's going to have to be a lot more functional and a lot less expensive than anything they're even speculating about now.
Those corporate types that think that $400 is a good price for an e-reader and books should cost $25 each are setting the stage for their extinction. That kind of pricing will create a "pirate" market for digital books; this and the low sales rate (due to the pricing) will kill their market in short order./P
It is interesting to see that the CPU supports both LCD and eInk at the same time. I've just bought a BeBook and the eInk is just perfect for reading. The eInk display is however absolutely worthless as an interface device. After buying a my Hero (android) phone, the BeBook is left at home most of the time. For my workplace I would be very interested in using an eInk display for PDF. But navigating and searching is such a PITA on the current readers that I can not recommend it to anyone. On my reader I get irritated by the navigating experience even when going from one book to another.
Idea: maybe they should mate androids and iPhones with eInk displays, e.g. using bluetooth. You could make a really cheap one while using the wireless LAN / mobile internet / multi-touch screen etc of the phone for all the stuff that the current eBooks are missing. For now I'll just use my droid, even though I will get a headache from all that eye-strain.
Actually, I think a full Bluetooth implementation should be enough: :-p
- via tethering to your non-castrated phone, it give you 3G on your ereader. Sorry, iFans
- it can give you LAN access
- if can give you ethernet acces at home via your PC
The Cloud - because you don't care if your apps and data are up in the air.
Considering that the Palm Zire cost $99 retail when it was brand spanking new, that's a pretty good question.