Re: Re: a durable, dedicated reader for under $50

From: "Chris Smith"

> On Wed, 28 May 2008, Aaron Walker wrote:
>
>> I don't hear anyone saying MP3's haven't taken off because MP3
>> players are too expensive.
>
> MP3 players have a lead of at least 10 years - and likely much,
> much more than that.
>
> The first MP3 players could hold an album's worth of music, but
> did so while offering advantages of robustness and resistance 
> to
> motion that the cassette player did not offer -- while leaving
> the basic music experience unchanged. That basic mobile
> experience has itself been unchanged since the introduction of
> the Walkman in 1979.
>
> Furthermore, we've had to ability to format-shift from any 
> audio
> source to the portable format since the early 70's -- again
> without substantially changing the experience of music.
>
> Although text of many forms now comes in electronicly -- see 
> this
> 'e-letter' that you are reading right now -- books have yet to
> move substantially to an electronic format. By comparison, 
> music
> has been fully electric since about 1950. Furthermore, we still
> have no reasonable way for the average person to move their
> existing book library to ebooks, while the average home music
> library has been moveable for some time - since the days of
> reel-to-reel.

..........
> Although we keep looking to content companies like Sony and
> Amazon to drive the market, perhaps we should look instead to
> companies with no ebook content available. Those are the ones
> that will actually build a reader that can stand on its own.
>
> :: chris smith 
> ::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::
> :: nihil tam munitum quod non expugnari pecuna possit - cicero 
> ::
>

I would add one further point to Chris's excellent summary.

Music has always been available while you do something else, and 
only in the salons of the upper classes up to some time in the 
C19 was the general idea that one sat to listen.   So with the 
inventions of the phonograph and then the radio the idea of 
instant availability and separation from the artistes rapidly 
became inherent to most music.

And, apart from those who like or need their books in spoken 
form, the act of reading is generally exclusive to other 
activity;  sometimes even something that captures the whole 
attention.   In music this applies quite rarely now, and mostly 
to renditions of the classics.

It is this demand for attention that puts the book into a very 
different category;   this may also explain aspects of the slow 
development of the ebook, since the concentration on novels in 
particular is best carried out in relaxed comfort, visually as 
well as phsyically.

Information ebooks tend to be different, but require the larger 
screen to be most useful.   The smaller screens seem to score 
best on snippets, particularly of news, and photographs.

Joseph Harris 


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