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About LinkBacksRead more.The new device is being hailed as the salvation of the newspaper industry, but that could prove overly optimistic.
Read more.The new device is being hailed as the salvation of the newspaper industry, but that could prove overly optimistic.
Newspapers are haemorrhaging readers because they get get content free, and often faster, online. I rather doubt any reader device is going to change that oin large numbers, especially where it'll require readers to fork out a sizeable sum to buy the reader, and then pay a subscription for the content. Some people might, especially for business users looking for focussed content, if it comes instantaneously via a 3g (or 4g) data feed ..... but I doubt it'll appeal to the mass market.
E-readers for books. Maybe. They certainly have their place. But larger devices aimed at newspapers? I may be proven wrong by time and events, but I just don't see it having a mass market appeal, except perhaps in the rather long term, IF the readers come WAY down in price, and the subscription is nominal. In 20 years time, maybe. Right now? Nah.
Not sure about newspapers, but I can see me playing a (small) subscription fee for certain specialist magazines, New Scientist is a good example. Engineering & Technology magazine is another.
Would also be good if you could buy them issue by issue as opposed to a subscription. I would bay close to the newsagent price for that, without actually having to go to the newsagent
Well, the price quoted was around $500 for the DX. Gonna pay £350 for a machine to read your New Scientist?
Thought not.
My main problem, I think, is that if they're big enough to reflect the mag/newspaper format, they're big enough to be awkward and cumbersome to carry around all the time. Whereas I can pick up a mag/newspaper art will, read it and then stick it in the trash. Do I want to carry one of these with me, with the inherent risk of loss or damage to an expensive device, on the off-chance that I want a newspaper?
And if I don't carry it, then it's little more use than a PC and a net link.
There's a certain lack of convenience implied, IMHO, either way.
No of course not!Originally Posted by Saracen
Well, the price quoted was around $500 for the DX. Gonna pay £350 for a machine to read your New Scientist?
Thought not.
That was based on the fact that all these things get cheeper with time
Eventually, I might be tempted with them, but not at all tempted just now.
I can see the point of the tie in with the American Universities though. I would rather kary a large Kindle than a bunch of medical or scientific text books.
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