When we talk about manufacturer competition among e-books, we are usually talking about the “Tower of e-Babel” problem: Kindle vs. Nook vs. Sony, MobiPocket vs. ePub vs. LRF, and so on.
But Ars Technica sees another area where manufacturer competition is heating up in the e-book arena: chipset manufacturers. Several semiconductor companies have announced plans to make dedicated e-reader system-on-a-chip devices, each of which could replace several sets of chips being used in current e-readers.
Ars notes that, because e-readers’ functions and chipsets are in general so similar to smartphones’ already, this could lead to e-readers expanding into multi-purpose cloud-client devices that can do far more than just read e-books. About the only thing standing in the way is e-ink’s monochromatic slow-to-refresh displays, and several new display technologies were announced at CES this year that could soon change that.
I have written a couple of times in TeleRead that this sort of convergence might be approaching. It is interesting to see how much others agree.
The convergence can be sought, but I believe there is a fundamental problem in size. Smallest e-reader is 5″, with others going from 6″ to 9.7″. There was an article in Teleread about a test of a 19.1″ one.
What use is convergence for this sizes ? Phones are 3.something at most, see the iPhone or the latest.
Who would carry a telephone 9.7″ big ?
The largest phone screen seems to be 4.3 inches diagonally, which is almost 5 inches. And if one’s the sort of person who reads a Kindle DX or the like while commuting, why not have a unit that could act as a phone so you needn’t carry another device around? Granted, it might look odd if you held it up to your ear, but it could work with a bluetooth headset as easily as any phone.
Well, Bruno, what I said was “multi-purpose cloud-client devices that can do far more than just read e-books”. The article itself gives examples like a hiker using a mapping application to be able to load maps in that big-screen size for reviewing while on the trail. With a fast-enough display, it might be able to view movies like the Joo Joo nee Crunchpad, or surf the web like the Kindle only better.
Not just make phone calls.