Education: January 2010 Archives

Apple IPad - Can it usurp e-ink?

By liam noonan on January 28, 2010 11:05 AM | Permalink | Comments (4)

The Apple IPad has been launched and the hype reached new levels. Steve Jobs knows how to market and perform a product launch. It is only when the excitement dies down and the Apple Acolytes have returned to their temples to worship at their beautifully designed altars and pews will we figure out if the device is "worth it".

My initial reaction are as follows:

How will it perform outside in sunshine?, e-ink does a great job from a readability point of view
Power management, a e-ink devices such as as the Sony reader and the kindle can be used for a very long time between charges
Will they allow you to read existing e-books, and e-books published from other stores
DRM are we going to see Apple take a similar approach as they did with the Ipod, lock it down first then slowly open it up
I can see why news papers like it you could sign up via itunes to get your daily news paper or monthly magazine subscription.

So the I am still skeptical and will probably wait 2 - 3 years for the features and technology to stabilise and the prices to drop.