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Damnit, I'm not ready to buy *another* kindle.

This is why I'm not entirely sure that e-readers and tablets are all that much greener than actual books. When someone buys a physical book they'll keep it for years or even decades. The way things are going, e-readers look like they'll have a "life" of about 18 months.

Worry not. Digitimes track record is abysmal and Bertolucci seems to be their pet tech blogger.

A Kindle revision may be coming but I wouldn't make any decisions or give it a second thought based on Digitimes.

ML2376, on 06 April 2012 - 02:44 PM, said:

It depends on how you define "life".

If you mean obsolescence, it's not 18 months as long as formatting remains the same. It would be for the life-expectancy of the device. If you're talking life-expectancy of the device, I don't have any figures for that, but given its lack of moving parts, it's probably at least as long as a remote control unit (which is to say lots of years. I have some from the 1980's that still work.).

But you only have to buy one e-reader and can then own, potentially, millions of books.

The green impact of ONE person owning millions of books is gigantic. That's several thousand tons of carbon just laying around, not to mention the carbon cost of printing them and transporting them to their points of sale or delivery. While not everyone owns that many books, I have about 3000 real, printed books taking up space in boxes. An e-reader makes that space available with only the cost of the e-reader and the fraction of the cost it takes to have received the book in e-book format (in carbon costs).

The comparisons are obvious. E-readers are far more carbon efficient, provided people buy a lot of books. What that tipping point is I don't know, but if someone uses it for magazine reading and other media like that, it's probably not as hard to make up the carbon difference as people may think. So if you only have War and Peace, then it's probably not as green an option as buying the book off the store shelf. But if you have the entire Library of Congress, you can be sure your e-reader is far more green than having that material in paper.

I won't go into the financial side of the cost of e-readers. That depends on how many books are bought versus the cost of those books in paper, among other things.

This post has been edited by Fatesrider: 06 April 2012 - 08:26 PM

I hope this rumor turns out to be just that! I just bought a brand new Kindle Fire exactly 1 week ago, and I waited to get it for this very reason, Amazon needs to make this device so we would be able to upgrade our devoces through software updates. There's no way I will be buying another one any time soon. Thanks PCW for keeping us informed.

I will replace my old Kindle Keyboard once there is color e-ink. But I think people going to LCD based tablets don't do much reading. It is a terrible experience. E-ink forever!

FeliciaL, on 06 April 2012 - 09:44 PM, said:

They do. I've had a KF since January and Amazon has released three software updates since then, each with significant improvements. The updates have been free and they sync automatically, no user intervention required.
However, this article appears to be referring to Amazon's eReaders, not the KF tablet. At least, that's the way I read it.

I have a 2nd gen Kindle and a android tablet. I like and use them both because each has its pluses. My Kindle is my primary reading device when away from home. My tablet is my primary reading/entertainment device when at home.
The tablet is more versatile because it has apps (news, games, movies, etc.) along with the kindle app but it is almost impossible to read if I am in direct sunlight. The Kindle can be read anywhere as long as there is enough light to read by but can't do anything else with it.
Will this new color eInk screen be good enough to watch movies on the Kindle? I doubt it. So I will probably continue to use a tablet at the home and a kindle away. Although, I will probably replace my old Kindle with the next/newest eInk or color-eInk Kindle that comes out.

I have a 2nd gen Kindle and a android tablet. I like and use them both because each has its pluses. My Kindle is my primary reading device when away from home. My tablet is my primary reading/entertainment device when at home.
The tablet is more versatile because it has apps (news, games, movies, etc.) along with the kindle app but it is almost impossible to read if I am in direct sunlight. The Kindle can be read anywhere as long as there is enough light to read by but can't do anything else with it.
Will this new color eInk screen be good enough to watch movies on the Kindle? I doubt it. So I will probably continue to use a tablet at the home and a kindle away. Although, I will probably replace my old Kindle with the next/newest eInk or color-eInk Kindle that comes out.

DanConnell, on 18 April 2012 - 10:04 AM, said: