Tony Cole, who runs an excellent news site dedicated to ebook readers, eBookAnoid.com, ponders the changes that have taken place in the electronic book world in the past twelve months. The Kindle has almost become the Hoover of the e-ink book world, but the advent of the Amazon Fire and other tablets is threatening the dedicated device:
…..the word Kindle for many people is synonymous with ereader, much to the anger of other ereader makers, such as Sony, Barnes and Noble, Kobo and all the others out there, who found themselves being left in Amazon’s dust…
Times they are a-changing. Last year he was overwhelmed by a constant stream of new dedicated ereaders. Now this has been replaced by an equally strong stream of tablets, offering reading as a sideshow to other delights. He now sees a pretty dim future for the now-cheap dedicated ereader:
I am pretty sure that unless e-Ink or some other company comes up with a really bright colour system the days of the e-Ink ereader may well be numbered. There are signs that dedicated ereader makers are fighting back, we have, for example the shortly to be released Odyssey from Bookeen, which has such a rapid screen refresh on its e-Ink screen that it can show full screen videos perfectly, and other makers are coming up with all sorts of tricks to try and keep in the running. But, sadly unless these various technical advances happen very soon, I fear the days of the dedicated, monochrome e-Ink ereader are numbered, and that the tablet will be declared the winner.