# Why haven't E-readers advanced like other tech? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [January 23, 2020, 1:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-havent-e-readers-advanced-like-other-tech/846842 "2020-01-23T13:28:51Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 1\ **Showing post:** 25
**Author:** ![Charlie\_Wayne](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/4bbf92/32.png) [@Charlie\_Wayne](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Charlie_Wayne)\ **Post date:** [January 23, 2020, 4:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-havent-e-readers-advanced-like-other-tech/846842/25 "2020-01-23T16:43:47Z")
> [@ftg](#): > > I have an old Nook Simple Touch. Came out in 2011, $99 list price. Had mine since 2013, I think. (I right away rooted it and installed Cyanogenmod OS, use FBreader and other, old, Android 2.2 apps on it.) > > It’s a bit old in the tooth. Small display: 6". No built in light. Poor contrast. So, time to upgrade. > > What I want: bigger with built in light and “paperwhite” contrast. E ink, of course, for better battery usage. Maybe better dpi. It’s been 9 years, look at how far regular tablets have progressed in that time. > > So I look around. What? The only qualifier I see is the Amazon Kindle Oasis (8th+ generation) with an 7" screen. Only 7"?? The current model is a $250! And that’s with “special offers”. Add $20 to get rid of those. (Although I’ve always been able to do that myself on Amazon tablets.) > > Again, what? > > This makes no sense to a computer person like myself. Normally I’d expect that in 9 years the cost for a slightly bigger tablet that requires such mundane CPU and memory would have drastically fallen. $50 would be pricey. > > And look at other aspects of this. > > Take the bezel. The Nook ST overall is 7.5" diagonally. So an 7" tablet with a modern bezel like many cell phones would be only slightly over 7". Instead the Oasis is almost 8.5". Just look at the size of the [bezel](https://www.amazon.com/All-new-Kindle-Oasis-now-with-adjustable-warm-light/dp/B07L5GJD99/), with the oversize right edge. A tablet that size should have an 8" screen. Yet another “What?” > > And still only 300 dpi. > > So, question time. Why are E-readers some sort of tech exception? Why aren’t they more bangs per buck? Why isn’t there the amazing leaps that you see everywhere else in this field. > > The only think I can think of is the E Ink issue. Maybe patents and all that. But still doesn’t explain things like the bezel size, etc. OMG! I have been working with PCs and Mainframe computers ever since 1968 but … yet … I had to Google “what is an E reader” to understand your post. I have heard of “Kindle” and “Kindle Readers” and had some vague idea they were a device that would take a printed page and read it so that people could close their eyes and listen to a human voice speak the English text. I’m sorry. But I was never excited or attracted to the idea of getting such a device. Even if someone offered it to me for free, I would decline because I would not want to have to spend a lot of time learning how to use it. It’s almost always a pain to learn how to use some new tech. I think that is why seniors tend to avoid answering machines or other new kinds of tech (I know answering machines are not really “new tech”). But it often takes time to learn how to use them plus people often seem to feel they are made to feel foolish when young children get to use these things - seemingly with no problems - yet when adults or seniors try to learn how to use them, they experience plenty of difficulties. I try to welcome new tech - but only if I can see some useful component to it. I just can’t seem to muster up the energy to get interested in many new tech devices. For example, when telephone answering machines first came out circa 1979, I bought one for $500 and felt like a complete idiot because I soon learned there were perfectly good machines available for less than $100. The slick sales person who sold me the $500 machine gave me a real hard sale about how wonderful this machine performed. I think they repeated the phrase, “built like a real Mac Truck” several times. I never realized that I had no interest in a telephone answering machine that was built like a Mac Truck. I would have been perfectly happy with a machine that was built like a transistor radio. After that experience, I tended to avoid new tech - except for new PCs. So, to answer your question, I would just say that IMO, a large segment of the population just has little need or little interest in a machine that will read English text for them. Another primary reason may be that people feel they just have no need for a machine to read to them because they can read English text perfectly well by themselves. They just do not perceive any need for such a machine. --- _[View the full topic](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-havent-e-readers-advanced-like-other-tech/846842)._