News Report #4

“For E-Reader Fans, Competition Is Paying Off”
Nick Bilton, The New York Times
10/29/2010
<http://bits.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/10/29/for-e-reader-customers-competition-is-paying-off/?ref=technology>

Hearing a flight attendant’s instructions on an air plane to power off your books is becoming almost as common as being told to turn off your cell phone before the plane takes off.  The e-reader has become increasingly popular throughout the past couple of years, creating many opportunities for competition in this type of market.  The controversy lies in the fact of whether the device would be a better seller if it remained just an e-reader, or also acted as a web device, or whether it should be black and white, or contain color.  The devices this article is referring to are the iPad made my Apple, a black-and-white e-ink reader and a Nook Color sold at Barnes & Noble, the e-reader made by Sony, containing no color, and lastly, the Amazon Kindle.  At this point, not one of the companies seems to know exactly what consumers are looking for, as some are getting worried that the devices able to perform other functions and containing color are going to be used by more people, and that the black-and-white e-readers may become a product geared towards a smaller more specialized market and designed for a more specific function.  The only thing that is for sure is that the high level of uncertainty in this market will lead to the ongoing, fast-paced, development of new devices, making the prices decrease at the same time because of the large amount of competition.

Each and every day I become more amazed at how quickly technology is advancing right before my eyes, as the first sentence of the article made me giggle when it referred to flight attendants telling passengers on the flight to “power down your books,” and everyone acted as if it was a normal statement.  Personally, I would want to invest in the Apple iPad because it is one small device which allows a person to do a variety things, e-reader being just one of them.  Although this device is a lot more expensive than some of the other ones that are solely e-readers, it seems to make more sense to spend the extra money and buy the device that can do several things, rather than the device that only supports the e-reader.  It will be interesting to see which of these devices ends up being the biggest hit with the majority of customers in this market today.