Martian Thoughts on Design

Today I’m going to talk briefly about technology.  All this business about tablets, netbooks and e-readers is really generating lots of hype in the press.  Personally I’d love to have an e-reader or tablet, so I can stop filling up my bookshelf.  I’ve been preparing myself for a black and white screen, until the technology improves.  But then I saw Qualcomm’s Mirasol color screen, so now I’m hoping for good color offerings in e-readers/tablet soon.

I was really looking forward to seeing what Plastic Logic did with their Que.  Unfortunately it looks like they missed the mark….at least for me.

They seem to have fallen into the classic mistake made by hardware manufacturers…..getting caught up in the device specs, then convincing themselves that some screwy use case is what consumers want.  I’m trying to figure out what the point of having AT&T 3G connectivity is, if you can’t upload documents that way, and there is no web browser.  E-mail? ZZZZZZZzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz.

Am I still interested in the Que as an e-reader?  Maybe.  At those prices?  Definitely not!  If it had at least the same capability, preferably more capability, than the Kindle DX, and was similarly priced, then I’d probably be all over it.  For that price, it’d need to have a LOT MORE capability, not LESS. 

Why not just get a Kindle DX?  I don’t want to be locked into their weird format. The Nook is quite interesting, but a bit too small for the type of books I mostly buy. I need something that is good for Textbook size reading, with graphics, charts, figures, etc. That’s why I had such hope for the Que. 

Is the Skiff the right product?  The device looks interesting. Unfortunately, there are still too many things up in the air at this point, like pricing, store access and format considerations.  As for the Service/Store, I can’t find a lot of detail about it yet, but the website says their service is “Publisher-friendly”. If we use the music or video industry as a guide, that means it will be a bad deal for consumers. I’d also feel a little more comfortable about the store offered by Barnes & Noble or Borders than some company I’ve never heard of.  But I’ll wait for further details.

It seems to me that there are a ton of companies pursuing this, and your dollar.  Dell, HP and many others are hyping their offerings. So far, no one has hit a home run in my book.  Most of them are completely blowing it, due to some poor choices like Plastic Logic’s or Dell’s ridiculously small screen.

Later this month, we’ll presumably see what Apple has to offer.  So far they’re the only company who’s really figured out a nice UI with their iPhone interface.  I don’t think this interface is completely appropriate for a tablet, so I hope they throw something even more impressive at us later this month.  Will I rush right out and be an early adopter? One word…..No!  I think we’ll need to wait at least one generation for them to get some of the kinks worked out.

So here I am, waiting for a really interesting device to replace my bookshelf.