The Future of eReaders
I’ve read several articles and blog posts that try to predict the future of eReaders, but this one makes the most sense. In short, there are too many unknown factors to do anything but venture an educated guess. New eReader technology is changing the shape of the market so quickly that predictions from just 6 months ago sound completely archaic. Many of us in the industry are excited to see how the iPad will change things; if it will mark another huge leap forward for eBooks, or if the bulk of buyers of the iPad will just be replacing their other eReaders. Either way, it represents another huge milestone in the life of the eReader.
But just for fun: my prediction is that tablet eReaders (iPad, Kindle DX) are short-lived. They’re just too big and too expensive to stay competitive with the smaller eReaders. Let’s meet back here in 6 months to see how wrong I am.
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Now, to be fair, I thought my predictions were somewhat prescient. I said that the existing eReader market was up for a challenge once someone started making readers that didn’t just let you read books, but also enabled you to do a wide variety of stuff easily—your banking, your social networking, etc. My example of a mobile device that did these sorts of things was the iPhone. And I suggested that a full sized reader with similar functionality would be attractive. Lo and behold, within a matter of months Apple released the iPad. What is it? An eReader with the functionality of an iPhone. The prediction, then, doesn’t seem that outdated to me. But, hey, in six months who knows?