Too Many eReaders, Says Gawker
Gawker’s Wilson Rothman wrote a post expressing what many may be feeling, or what others will strongly disagree with: “There are officially too damn many eBook readers,” as he titles his post.
“There will soon be two kinds of happy ebook-reader owners,” he says, “The people who paid a fair amount for a reputable ebook reader from one of the companies they already buy books from, and the people who spend like $50 on a no-name ebook reader that supports a lot of formats, who gets every book they can think of as a pirated copy over BitTorrent. Everyone else–both the buyers of tier-two ebook readers and the makers of them–are going to be screwed.”
He goes on to say “the introduction of e-ink-based readers by many big tech companies and a handful of feisty little ones threatens to sow confusion in the market place, encourage piracy, and screw over any company who gets in and then can’t really hack it against Kindle and Nook. And all of it will be a pointless exercise when long-lasting slates are a reality.”
The outpouring of eReaders at CES is certainly making this a crowded field–many companies are bringing out multiple E-Ink devices. The folks behind Copia are alone responsible for six new eReaders. Rothman is undoubtedly right that some of them won’t survive, or please those who buy them. But is the competition good for readers?
