Comments on: J. Gerry Purdy’s 15 requirements for an ebook reader

By: Chris

Chris — Sat, 10 Jan 2009 07:26:43 +0000

Gerry Purdy has somehow built a career out of stating the obvious. Any wisdom you find here is unlikely to be his.

By: Scott O.

Scott O. — Thu, 16 Oct 2008 19:16:02 +0000

One very important requirement was missed:

Long battery life and/or the ability to quickly recharge on-the-go.

By: Richard Herley

Richard Herley — Wed, 15 Oct 2008 18:42:46 +0000

According to a newspaper report I read in 1962 or thereabouts, compiled from the prognostications of the Eminent, we would all by 2008 be:

1. Working 20 minutes a week (tops, workaholics only)
2. Having our every whim satisfied by robots
3. Eating a single pill once a day to provide all our nutrition
4. Riding around in hovercars
5. Wearing Bacofoil suits
6. Holidaying on Mars

etc., etc.

It’s fun to speculate about e-readers, but all you can really say about the future is this: “It hasn’t happened yet.”

By: Felix Torres

Felix Torres — Wed, 15 Oct 2008 15:39:12 +0000

Dunno, its hard to argue with most of those point *individually* but collectively… Its easy to see how he ends up with a 2050 adoption timeframe.
Biggest problem I see is he is defining a *single* device. Sorry but that’s not the way the world works; one size does not fit all.
Even today there are *three* clear markets for ebooks, pulling the hardware in three seapate directions. The obvious result will be three separate form-factors/feature sets. And instead of having to wait til 2050 for broad adoption we’ll probably see it this next decade. It just won’t be on a single gadget is all.
As is, we have had productive representatives for all three markets for years now and there’s plenty of people getting good use out of them; the only real limitation is this desire for a magic-bullet single dominating gadget that will serve everybody equally well.
*That* is not going to happen any time soon.

By: Marcus Sundman

Marcus Sundman — Wed, 15 Oct 2008 08:57:40 +0000

> 15. Acceptable [DRM]

I assume he means “Support for non-DRM-infested content.”

By: Clark Tracy

Clark Tracy — Wed, 15 Oct 2008 05:16:56 +0000

Acceptable price is what gets me here. I understand that 300-400 hundred dollars is steep for most people, I’m an undergrad working at a Pizza Hut so I don’t make anything, but I don’t believe that the price of an e-reader is as great when compared to cut-rate desktops and laptops($300-600), Ipods ($250-400), smart-phones ($200-600) and video game systems ($200-400). When also considering the price-point of video games for computers and systems like the Xbox, which run between $50-60 new, compared to the price of an e-book at $10-25. What I’m saying, in a long-winded way is that people pay a similar price for other electronic gear that e-book readers are priced at today and they are also paying more for video games than the cost of a book. The problem is not in the price, it’s in the importance people are placing in e-books. Of course, I’ve spent over 1200 in the past three years just on readers so I’m obviously not as affected by my low wage and high cost of readers. People on minimum wage will pay $600 for a new PS3 but they won’t spend 25 cents on a used paperback. It’s apathy for the product not a magic sell-points

By: Mike Cane

Mike Cane — Tue, 14 Oct 2008 22:20:57 +0000

What’s that sound in the Dilbert comic strip when the characters encounter something so DUMB their head bangs onto their desktop?

Oh yeah.

THUD!