E-Readers were getting popular during the early 2010s when the Amazon Kindle, Kobo and Barnes and Noble Nook were hitting their strides; after a few generations, these devices started to come down in price and started to appeal to the average user, who wanted a dedicated reader, to buy and read ebooks. In the modern era, there is no shortage of new and emerging brands that have carved out their niche. We have e-readers with Bluetooth or speakers to buy and listen to audiobooks, e-readers with full access to the Google Play Store, and digital note-taking devices such as the Remarkable, Supernote, Huawei Matepad, or Hanvon, which focus exclusively on e-notes. With so many choices and brands, what is your current favourite e-reader?
Every year for the past four years, more e-readers and e-notes have been produced and marketed than the year prior. This has strained the supply chain, where there aren’t enough E INK screens, Kaleido 3 colour filter arrays and Gallery 3 layers. This is why there has been a delay with new e-readers being released, such as the Pocketbook Viva, Mobiscribe Wave Color, Mooink 2C, Fujitsu Quaderno Gen 3, and many more. Most of these screens are reserved for E INK’s largest customers, who spend the most money with the company. This is why you will never find a Kindle, Nook or Kobo out of stock; they constantly are manufacturing more or undergoing mass production for future devices. However, the strain with e-paper only affects future devices, not those already in customers’ hands.
There are three types of e-readers right now, and users prefer which is better for their needs. The first is a dedicated e-reader that is purely designed for reading books. This is your typical Kindle, Kobo, Nook or Leaf 2 by Onyx. The second is e-readers with multimedia/multipurpose functionality. They are e-readers with many extras, such as Google Play, app functionality, audiobook support, physical page turn buttons, SD cards and more control over the user experience. Finally, you have e-notes or digital note-taking devices. Some of these are billed as distraction-free, with limited functionality outside of note-taking, such as the Remarkable 2, Supernote, or Fujitsu Quaderno. Other e-notes supercharge the experience with high-end specs that would make an iPad blush. Not to mention all of the above are using new e-paper technology such as Carta 1200, Carta 1250 or even coloured e-paper as selling factors.
What is your preferred e-reader right now?
Michael Kozlowski is the editor-in-chief at Good e-Reader and has written about audiobooks and e-readers for the past fifteen years. Newspapers and websites such as the CBC, CNET, Engadget, Huffington Post and the New York Times have picked up his articles. He Lives in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada.
