Why are the best eBook reading devices discontinued?

[Genecks]

To this day, many people request using eBooks as an alternative to regular books for intellectual discovery. The ability to transport a library in a moment satisfies many people. The sad part of this controversy is how many eBook reading devices are being shut down and put out of production. Other eBook devices are sprouting in foreign lands. The devices in North America and the U.S. have come to be large and expensive PDAs.

 

It's very interesting to see how low grade these eBook device technologies are. I'm suprised an electrical engineer hasn't created a solar powered eBook with the same technological attributes of a laptop for power conservation, but at the same time only stuffing the essentials to lower cost of production.

 

Seriously, think about it. Why are these type of crappy P.o.S. eBook devices still around? I've been into electronics and computer science for over a decade and I'm amazed to see people are using a PDA style format for people to read a book. All these devices are simply a really big PDA that is overpriced.

 

The laptop is the superior choice when choosing to read an eBook. However, the inferior support the battery life of a laptop gives can frustrate the user.

 

The old devices that amaze me are SoftBook, Everybook, and Qubit.

- http://www.writerswrite.com/epublishing/edevices.htm

 

I'm sure most people would be interested in the recently developed $100 USD MIT laptop; however, they created it more out of capitalist idea and foreign relations than supporting those who are less fortunate in foreign lands.

 

I'm sure if I post something up to a hacker site, a few people would get to work. This item is money in the making; however, so many publishers refuse to let books turn into eBooks

[1veedo]

That's why you go to mininova or similar.

[drochaid]

They are being discontinued because of complete lack of demand. Poor quality screens, lack of available ebooks, incompatible formats with restrictive DRM and various other reasons not to mention the psychology of people just preferring real books in general.

 

ebooks are still an early technology. It's just not their time yet.

[ecoli]

They are being discontinued because of complete lack of demand. Poor quality screens' date=' lack of available ebooks, incompatible formats with restrictive DRM and various other reasons not to mention the psychology of people just preferring real books in general.

 

ebooks are still an early technology. It's just not their time yet.[/quote']

 

yep... library research isn't a lost art yet and people, at least the older generation, like reading paper more then computer screens. My mother, for example, can't use a computer for more then a half and hour without getting a headache. I can go for 5 hours or more, and I'm relatively new in the computer scene... People who are growing up with personal computers in their homes will be more accepting of eBooks, I suspect.