Apple probably moved more than a million of its iPhones in just one weekend.
How can Amazon catch up and develop its book business along the way? Or how about other Apple rivals?
A mix of a Kindle and a mobile phone would be one possibility—something with a rollout or pop-out screen.
PL display: Example of the possibilities
Plastic Logic‘s technology shown in the YouTube clip is monochrome—it’s hardly a colorful, full motion screen that could display videos in the same style that the iPhone and iPod Touch can. Even so, this is one step toward a mobile phone and e-reader with the right screen. Such a hybrid would enjoy strong appeal to people who don’t want to tote a whole bunch of gadgets.
Check out this video as well as another, Why Flexible Displays? No, I’m not saying PL is the only company out there: don’t forget E Ink itself, for example—especially if the device can use the Touch EPD technology announced in May.
Meanwhile, to the left, that’s a 10.7 inch screen from Plastic Logic, and I can’t wait for it to reach the market. Judging from TeleRead polls of Kindle, Sony and Cybook owners, E Ink screens might have a ten- or fifteen-percent failure rate due to accidents or manufacturing defects.
That is unacceptable for a dedicated e-reading device and would be even more so for a constantly toted gadget like a phone—hence, one reason to cheer on Plastic Logic, E Ink and other vendors in their quest for a rugged replacement for LCDs and glass E Ink displays. Also don’t forget about flexible OLED technology (right photo) and other possibilities. You might want to call up this flex OLED video.
Hard to predict ultimate winners
Who knows which display tech will be dominant? Or whether another company—Sony, or Apple maybe?—might beat Amazon to the marketplace with a full color equivalent of the Kindle blended in with a cellphone. It’s bound to happen, however.
Correctly, while discussing an extra £25 million that the U.K.-based Plastic Logic won in funding from Amadeus Capital Partners and others, PC Pro News noted the Kindle-related possibilities of flexible screens. Flex plastic would not just be more rugged but also lighter and cheaper, and the company says that phones, along with laptops, are another target beyond e-readers alone. So I repeat. Get set—though I don’t know when!—for the era of e-reader/cellphone hybrids.
A Kindlephone?!!? kPhone?! David, that idea is just downright evil!
More reasons not to spend too much money on ebooks in the proprietary kindle format.
I have great fun scouring the web for free ebooks to read on my kindle. Since I like SciFi the freebies from Tor alone will keep me amused for a few weeks.
Another trick I use is to download the free sample for 20 or 30 books. The free sample is long enough that I can read it at my leisure and well determine if I’ll like a book. Then I go check out the ones I like best at the library.
I love my kindle. But I doubt I’m using it in quite the way Amazon intended. I’m just not going to spend big bucks on ebooks until I know that I can read them on any of the many possible future screens or devices or technologies.