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Prices Slashed For Nook, Kindle E-Readers
b0bby sends in a report from ZDNet about the sudden outbreak of a price war in e-reader devices. "On Monday, Barnes & Noble cut the price of the 3G Nook to $199. It also launched a $149 Wi-Fi version. Just hours later, Amazon responded by cutting the price of the Kindle to $189. At $259, the price of the Kindle and Nook just 24 hours ago, an e-reader purchase competed with an Apple iPad, which started at $499 for a Wi-Fi version. Below $200, a dedicated e-reader purchase makes a lot more sense." Sony dropped prices for its readers three months ago, but the move didn't kick off a price war at that time. Some believe that dedicated e-readers are doomed in the long run to lose out to general-purpose devices such as the iPad — and its coming imitators, many of which will be based on Google Android.
Until they drop Ebook prices, they can pound sand...... For those prices, Kindle/Nook should be free
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It's a lot easier to say that it's over and the iPad/tablet rush will kill the eReader revolution.
Not to mention the fact that the nook/Kindle are much, much cheaper. That makes taking it to places like the beach (large zipper plastic bag keeps it safe and readable) or just on the go in general is something you don't have to worry about.
Yes, the iPad will have its fans. But there are people who don't want a "do everything" device, they want something that reads books really, really well. And the nook, Kindle, and other eReaders do that. Until there's a radical revolution in color screen technology that gains the benefits that e-ink has (which are great for a book reading device)
Not to mention that the 3G iPad is $130 extra, and doesn't include free 3G for the store so you can make an impulse book buy wherever you are. That's major in the convenience factor of the device.
sale and distribution of pure data is effectively free.
Yeah it's not like they have to pay for bandwidth or anything...
Probably nowhere near that high. E-ink screens are an oddball in process terms, so they don't share economies of scale with LCDs(which is why the real cheap seats in the e-reader market are black and white LCD devices, and why E-ink, inc. probably says a prayer of thanksgiving every time Pixel Qi's stuff gets delayed again). A fully pixel-addressable one of reasonable size and resolution is not inexpensive(unlike the cheesy region-addressable ones, which are fairly cheap). As discrete items, 3G modems suitable for computer use seem to go for 30-80 dollars. I'm assuming that they are cheaper in bulk; but that is still something extra on the old BOM.
We are probably talking at least 100% above BOM; but I'd be surprised at anything markedly higher than the consumer electronics average. The real rip-off, though, is in the fact that you are paying all that just for the right to purchase a bunch of fancy bitstreams, generally for at least as much as the paperback equivalent, sometimes more, from somebody's proprietary storefront.
One thing that seems to be true with Android is it's always "coming". There's always a really great Android moment on the horizon.
But there are already many Android tablets. They're not coming. They've been here a while. Last January's CES was infested with them. They all just suck. They get reviewed and they ship 10 units and they go away. The Nook which is mentioned in this article is an Android tablet!
The idea that manufacturers are going to just copy iPad is asinine. Look at the Sprint EVO, which had 3 iPhones to copy and it gets 8 hours of standby battery life. In other words, if you don't use it at all, it still dies in 8 hours. A key feature of iPad is the 10-12 hours of actual use, and 30 days of standby. I've gotten on a train in Silicon Valley with a fully-charged iPad, surfed on 3G the whole way, and when I'm putting it away in San Francisco, it still says "100%" in the battery meter. I've had the device for 3 weeks and never even seen a low battery warning.
And iOS is not a phone OS scaled-up, it's desktops-and-servers OS X with a touch interface on top. Android doesn't have that kind of graphics layer, multichannel audio, advanced typography, C API, and other desktop-class features that only become even more important as you scale the display up. Being able to port desktop C apps over rather than rewrite in Java only becomes even more important.
And the bag of parts on an iPad approaches the retail price point. There is no room under there. A big display and battery is a big display and battery. An iPad 3G 16GB is $629 retail and Nexus One 4G with 1/4 the screen size and 30% of the battery volume is $649 retail. The biggest problem for Android v2 has been it's more expensive than iPhone! That's why it only sells on the closed networks in the US. That's why 75% of Android devices run v1.6.
In tech, it is a fool's game to try and predict the future anyway. But if you are doing this Android-is-coming-soon thing, that is something you should talk to your therapist about. It's just become so tiresome. Any mention of iPad or iPhone online and the next thing you know "Android will be better next year!" Sheesh. It's like a reflex. If only it was as easy to actually make functional, consumer-ready devices.
I disagree. I've owned a Sony Reader and an iPad. The iPad is, hands down, easier on the eyes.
The Kindle and other eInk displays have a contrast ratio of 6:1 to 7:1. The iPad backlit IPS display is 750:1 to 930:1.
Other than perhaps directly under the sun, the iPad display wins. In dim light, the iPad owns.
Not only that, but I own 20 year old paperbacks. It's not clear that Kindles will last anywhere near that long.
Laissez lire, et laissez danser; ces deux amusements ne feront jamais de mal au monde. - Voltaire
How so? Books are a communal thing, an eBook reader is not. My mom has been buying what was once considered 'trashy" Sci-Fi and horror paperbacks since the late 50s, thanks to her our public library gets to have one of the best classic Sci-Fi horror sections around, and my mom is on a first name basis with the librarians and most of the college girls in town thanks to her "need to free up shelf space" a couple of times a year. When she is in the library (which is often) she ends up chattering for ages with the local college girls, who want to know what she thinks of a particular artist/series or want to know if she has a missing book in some old fantasy series the girl is reading (which she often does) and they will sit there for ages discussing books.
You just don't get interaction like that with an eBook. They are just little ones and zeroes, little chunks of DRM that are quickly not worth anything, even to the one who paid. I remember when this whole eReader fad came around last in the mid 90s, and just like today the publishers wanted too much money for DRM infested crap. Just like then I have a feeling it will all end up in the trash, while my mom and the college girls at the library swap the last fantasy authors over tea.
ACs don't waste your time replying, your posts are never seen by me.