Cheap Kindle Project

[esecallum]

While I was in bed it occurred to me that a lcd phote frame used for displaying pictures costing about $20 for a 5 inch frame could be easily adapted to be a book reader like the Amazon Kindle book reader which costs a whopping $500.For that much you could buy a laptop or a desktop pc.

I see no reason why a picture LCD photoframe could not display text if it can display color pictures/jpegs.

Therefore I ask you to either spread the idea about this or make it happen.

Only a very simple basic program either linux or windows would be required to act as an operating system or even run it from a flash drive which would store both the pdf,rtf,txt,ebooks.

The idea is that a cheap disposable lcd picture photo frame could be used as a replacement for the very expensive kindle book reader.

This could finally revolutionise the reading of books due to low cost.

There are many clever,smart and intelligent people on this board who could easily implement this.

_________________

[prathapml]

You are forgetting:

1. The resolution (more pixels per inch on an e-book reader)

2. The (slightly) more powerful hardware needed for displaying, scrolling, downloading, etc (of ebooks). Which means it almost starts stepping into the zone of "runs on an OS" (however miniscule).

3. It isn't just about hardware - software is just as important to make an e-book reader worth using (witness people going ga-ga over OSes that are barely as functional as Windows, but offer a flashy UI). And the software can't be off-the-shelf - it needs to be custom developed for the device.

4. Economies of scale. (far more cheap photoframes are bought, than e-book readers)

5. A photoframe is pretty much just that, while the ebook reader market keeps having better designs, so standardisation and mass production is not done to that extent.

6. Niche. Not many people buy it, so proces aren't driven down as fast. (you see the value of a photo frame. you may or may not see the value of an ebook reader, which is a highly controversial topic, with people wowed by it but then dumping it for lack of practicability, and not matching a standard book, and moreover, barely 0.1% of the world's textual content is currently accessible through an ebook reader, which needs to increase. I won't buy such a device until it reaches critical mass - atleast half of the books published must be accessible, and I mean not just those from big publishers in the west.)

7. Pricing of e-books. Why would I bother to buy an e-book that actually gives me LESS functionality (in some ways) than a physical one, unless the price is very competitive at half or so?

8. Lastly, comfort. (the feel of a book in your hand, turning pages, reading it anywhere, no electricity required, still readable even in bright sunlight.....)

Edited December 9, 2008 by prathapml