{"id":12997,"date":"2010-07-30T15:58:08","date_gmt":"2010-07-30T13:58:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/mamchenkov.net\/wordpress\/?p=12997"},"modified":"2010-07-30T15:58:08","modified_gmt":"2010-07-30T13:58:08","slug":"how-cheap-e-readers-can-go","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mamchenkov.net\/wordpress\/2010\/07\/30\/how-cheap-e-readers-can-go\/","title":{"rendered":"How cheap e-readers can go?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

The Wall Street Journal asks the question – “How low will e-readers prices go?<\/a>”<\/p>\n

\n
The $99 e-reader announcement comes after Amazon\u2019s announcement of a $139 Kindle, and after Amazon, Barnes and Noble and Sony all lowered prices on their gadgets in the wake of Apple\u2019s iPad release.\u00a0As Amazon prepares to release a $139 Kindle e-reader next month, could even cheaper e-readers be close behind?<\/div>\n<\/blockquote>\n

I think they are. \u00a0They should eventually get much cheaper. \u00a0 One thing that makes e-readers different from the rest of the computer technology is that they are often produced and sold not by hardware companies, but by book selling companies. \u00a0While it’s nice to get some extra cash from the hardware, the main goal of the book selling business is to sell books. \u00a0The more books they sell, the better they are. \u00a0E-reader is the device that helps them sell more books. \u00a0 So if that is going to drive their business up, book selling companies can cover the big chunk of e-reader costs by extra profits.<\/p>\n

Also, unlike the rest of the computing world, I think e-readers will remain rather simplistic. \u00a0They are domain-specific devices, with very specific needs – readable display, long lasting battery and simplicity. The more bells and whistles you put in, the complicated it becomes and the more battery it drains. \u00a0Plus, I think by now everyone already has either a laptop or a mobile device that has all the bells and whistles. \u00a0E-reader is good for disconnecting, even if shortly, from the rest of the world.<\/p>\n

Looking back, we’ve seen a number of simple domain-specific electronics. \u00a0Such as calculators and electronic translators. \u00a0While they are mostly replaced by modern mobile phones, you can still buy them. \u00a0And the prices are very low, not anywhere near to how they used to be. Electronic translators come as cheap as $16 and calculators are from $4, via a quick Google search. \u00a0I’m sure if you look deeper, you’ll find them cheaper.<\/p>\n

If e-readers will get any more complicated or expensive, one of the things that might happen with them is subscription business. \u00a0Similar to how it is now with mobile phones and telecom companies. \u00a0You pay subscription fees or membership or something, and you get a device with your contract. \u00a0And then you pay for some books (new editions or bestsellers) like for international calls and you get some free (public domain works, blogs, news via RSS, etc).<\/p>\n

That’s all, of course, assuming reading books won’t just die over. \u00a0Like so many other beautiful things.<\/p>\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\n

The Wall Street Journal asks the question – “How low will e-readers prices go?” The $99 e-reader announcement comes after Amazon\u2019s announcement of a $139 Kindle, and after Amazon, Barnes and Noble and Sony all lowered prices on their gadgets in the wake of Apple\u2019s iPad release.\u00a0As Amazon prepares to release a $139 Kindle e-reader … Continue reading How cheap e-readers can go?<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[1,2294,62],"tags":[42,2378,2334,9],"keyring_services":[],"class_list":["post-12997","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-general","category-books","category-technology","tag-amazon","tag-amazon-kindle","tag-apple-ipad","tag-hardware"],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":13316,"url":"https:\/\/mamchenkov.net\/wordpress\/2010\/08\/31\/amazon-charges-wifi-kindle-users-for-3g-roaming-via-books\/","url_meta":{"origin":12997,"position":0},"title":"Amazon charges WiFi Kindle users for 3G roaming via books","author":"Leonid Mamchenkov","date":"August 31, 2010","format":false,"excerpt":"As per this post over at Download Squad, it seems that Amazon is charging all international Kindle users, including WiFi-only Kindle owners for 3G roaming, using their book prices. I decided to start with the classics \u2013 for example,\u00a0Moby Dick. Yes, I know it's available for free online, but this\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "All"","block_context":{"text":"All","link":"https:\/\/mamchenkov.net\/wordpress\/category\/general\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":14760,"url":"https:\/\/mamchenkov.net\/wordpress\/2011\/04\/15\/amazon-bloopers-the-end-of-printed-media\/","url_meta":{"origin":12997,"position":1},"title":"Amazon Bloopers : The end of printed media","author":"Leonid Mamchenkov","date":"April 15, 2011","format":false,"excerpt":"Disclaimer: before you read any further, I want to you know that's it nothing more than an obvious bug in a very large and complex system called Amazon. \u00a0A friend just pointed it out to me while it was happening. \u00a0And not just somewhere, but in my own Amazon Wishlist!\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "All"","block_context":{"text":"All","link":"https:\/\/mamchenkov.net\/wordpress\/category\/general\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/mamchenkov.net\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/04\/practical_guide_to_deisgning_for_the_web.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":25199,"url":"https:\/\/mamchenkov.net\/wordpress\/2016\/02\/25\/upgrading-amazon-ec2-instance-type\/","url_meta":{"origin":12997,"position":2},"title":"Upgrading Amazon EC2 instance type","author":"Leonid Mamchenkov","date":"February 25, 2016","format":false,"excerpt":"By now everybody knows that one of the major benefits to using cloud services rather than hosting on your own hardware is the ease to scale quickly. \u00a0Many web applications and large companies benefit from this, but what about smaller customers? \u00a0How about a single server? Well, today one of\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "All"","block_context":{"text":"All","link":"https:\/\/mamchenkov.net\/wordpress\/category\/general\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":21426,"url":"https:\/\/mamchenkov.net\/wordpress\/2014\/03\/31\/cloud-computing-price-war\/","url_meta":{"origin":12997,"position":3},"title":"Cloud computing price war","author":"Leonid Mamchenkov","date":"March 31, 2014","format":false,"excerpt":"Now this looks like a straight up war! \u00a0Less than a day apart, both Google and Amazon announced yet another price drop on their services. \u00a0TechCrunch sums up Google's price drop as following: Google Compute Engine is seeing a 32 percent reduction in prices across all regions, sizes and classes.\u00a0App\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "All"","block_context":{"text":"All","link":"https:\/\/mamchenkov.net\/wordpress\/category\/general\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":18703,"url":"https:\/\/mamchenkov.net\/wordpress\/2013\/10\/24\/on-the-price-of-the-operating-systems\/","url_meta":{"origin":12997,"position":4},"title":"On the price of the operating systems","author":"Leonid Mamchenkov","date":"October 24, 2013","format":false,"excerpt":"Wired.com is running a good piece on the price of the operating systems. \u00a0It covers a bit of history and shows how things are now and how it all came a full circle - from free operating systems of the past, all through highly profitable years of Microsoft and Apple,\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "All"","block_context":{"text":"All","link":"https:\/\/mamchenkov.net\/wordpress\/category\/general\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":26983,"url":"https:\/\/mamchenkov.net\/wordpress\/2016\/11\/27\/top-29-books-on-amazon-from-hacker-news-comments\/","url_meta":{"origin":12997,"position":5},"title":"Top 29 books on Amazon from Hacker News comments","author":"Leonid Mamchenkov","date":"November 27, 2016","format":false,"excerpt":"I came across this nice visualization of \"Top 29 books ranked by unique users linking to Amazon in Hacker News comments\". 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Most of these are, not surprisingly, on programming and\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "All"","block_context":{"text":"All","link":"https:\/\/mamchenkov.net\/wordpress\/category\/general\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"hacker-news-books","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/mamchenkov.net\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/11\/hacker-news-books-500x169.png?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]}],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mamchenkov.net\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12997","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mamchenkov.net\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mamchenkov.net\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mamchenkov.net\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mamchenkov.net\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=12997"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/mamchenkov.net\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12997\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mamchenkov.net\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12997"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mamchenkov.net\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=12997"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mamchenkov.net\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=12997"},{"taxonomy":"keyring_services","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mamchenkov.net\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/keyring_services?post=12997"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}