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TechCrunch’s $200 Web tablet: A way for e-books to take off?
July 22, 2008 | 10:25 am
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By David Rothman
Where are the nonE Ink machines for reading E? That’s a common refrain from many TeleBlog readers. Now TechCrunch is talking about a $200 Web tablet, apparently LCD-based.
And guess what the ETA is for the prototype? Just two months or so from now.
Built around Firefox
The real app will be Firefox, but wouldn’t it be great if TC’s Michael Arrington could talk the browser people into doing a decent e-book act—with ePub as the featured format? I’ll also be curious about the screen size.
Remember, some linux-based "Internet tablets" fit for e-reading already exist, the Nokias. But Michael would like to "bypass any desktop interface and go directly to Firefox running in a modified Kiosk mode that effectively turns the browser into the operating system for the device. Add Gears for offline syncing of Google docs, email, etc., and Skype for communication and you have a machine that will be almost as useful as a desktop but cheaper and more portable than any laptop or tablet PC.
"It will also include a custom default home page with large buttons for bookmarked services – news, Meebo/Ebuddy for IM, Google Docs/Zoho for Office, Email, social networks, photo sites, YouTube, etc. Everything that you use every day.
"We’re working with a supply chain management company that says the basic machine we’re looking to build can be created for just a few hundred dollars. They need us to write the software modifications to Linux and Firefox (more on that below) and spec the hardware. Then they run with it and can have a few prototypes built within a month."
Yes, I’m intrigued, while, of course, remaining concerned about the perils of the cloud-computing approach. I hope that roomy local storage on an SD card will at least be an option.
The other issue is price. $200 is a nice start, but this won’t be for the masses until it’s cut in half, just as the current OLPC price needs to be. And, yes, the other issue is DRM, which could restrict the range of books available.
Related: Techmeme roundup.
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Comments:
From a technical standpoint it’s not nesseryly as simple, epub is in it’s purest form simply a specific zip container with a few mandatory xml files present, theres a thing 2 or 3 recommended formats for inclusion in epub containers but im not sure how strict that list is.
In it’s base you just need to unzip the epubs to read them in your browser, so it must be relatively possible, and it used to be possible with the now out of development openberg extension.
Of cause add DRM and whatever nonstandard extentions being added by ebook redistributers and the epub brand becomes nothing but a marketing gimmick, it’s happened before with both sgml and xml, and not to mention html itself.
I went to the tech-crunch site to check this out. There I read that they have spoken with some large-volume OEM’s and have been ensured that they can produce the specs they want for a few hundred dollars.
Now, ‘a few hundred’ is a bit north, shall we say, of $200.
And ‘we can manufacture it for x’ is another way of saying, ‘usual retail price will be 2x’
I do really want one of these…when Intel initially put out their flash-video promos of the ‘MID’ concept a year ago, they were all 800×480 pixel 7-inch touchscreen tablets. That resolution is not much to speak of for reading text, but the screen size is very nice. Unfortunately, the consensus among manufacturers has been that we customers want keyboards, which has led them all to ape the Asus EEE clamshell design, which isn’t optimal for comfy immersive reading.
Pond, thanks very much for the sleuthing around. If the cost is several hundred and the res isn’t better, what’s the point? But maybe the current res is better and with the right biz arrangements, the costs can come down. I’m spread thin today, and I’ll welcome other poking around.
Thanks again,
David
I think this would be great for web-based readers like Manybooks, Gutenberg, and of course, BookGlutton. In fact, at BookGlutton we’re working on allowing epub uploads (we already use epub on the back end), so people will be able read their DRM-less libraries via Firefox without any additional plug-ins, add-ons or technical know-how.