Kindle Review – Kindle Fire Review, Kindle 4 Review

Beta News and Electronista cover the release of the dual screen Alex Reader which arrives tomorrow. Its $399 price and a ruthless demolition by the press (around the time it was announced) mean it’ll probably not have much impact.

However, a comment on Electronista caught my eye -

Not Good Enough

I am going to wait for a three screen version so I can better multitask.

This is hilarious – it’s also quite probable that a company comes to market with an actual triple screen eReader.

Why a triple screen eReader is within the realm of possibility

Look around the ereader landscape and there’s little differentiation -

1. Every eReader has an eInk screen.
2. They’re mostly equipped with 6″ screens and are around the size of a paperback.  
3. They have similar processing power, similar memory, and similar features. 
4. Now, thanks to the Agency Model we even have similar ebook prices.
5. Every single eReader is a variant of the design of the Kindle or the Sony Reader.

It’s literally a sea of clones. B&N decided to add a LCD touchscreen for navigation and covers - However, the device is still fundamentally the same.

Innovation in eReaders, or lack thereof

What are the big advances actually made? None.

There have been some advances in the service and in making books readable across devices. However, the eReader itself hasn’t evolved since 2007 and the original Sony Reader and Kindle.

All the advances that are being claimed – touch screens, dual screens, unbreakable screens – are not very innovative. Entourage were one of the few companies to actually innovate by using a full LCD screen with a full eInk screen in the Entourage Edge. However, they were savaged by the Press (notice the pattern) for reasons like the reviewer not liking the color of the case.

Basically, we have a complete lack of new thinking and eReader makers are desperate to separate themselves from the pack – In this environment someone making a triple screen eReader seems more and more probable.

Terrible triple screen eReader ideas

Here are some ways eReader makers could create a true triple screen disaster -

1. Take the joke comment seriously and let users multi-task i.e. first screen for eInk reading, second screen for LCD surfing, and third screen for folders and book cover browsing.  
2. Three LCD screens - try to recreate the book design with two screens and use the third for surfing. 
3. Having one usable screen and two screens that are too tiny to actually do anything useful with. 
4. Making the three screens work awkwardly together. Bonus points if they can make the fast LCD screen have to wait for the slow eInk screen. Bonus points if they use separate controllers for the three screens and waste a lot of time on the screen controllers talking to each other.
5. An ADD version that automatically switches between screens every 5 minutes to make sure you don’t get bored. Bonus points if one of the three screens is locked to YouTube. 

There are a lot of ways to go wrong and most of them start off as very innocent ideas -

A company thinks it would be cool if users could buy the remaining books in a series in the middle of reading the first one.

It would be even cooler if they could do that without leaving the book they’re on.

Let’s add an extra screen.

Only problem is that optimizing for that 1% use case makes the other 99% of use cases complicated and time consuming. 

Good triple screen ereader ideas

There are some triple screen eReader designs that are worth considering –  

1. Two 6″ eInk screens that fold together – for reading like on a book.  A third LCD screen for browsing the store and the Internet.
2. Three 6″ eInk screens that fold together. Open them up and it’s one big book.
3. Qualcomm’s Folding eReader patent. It might use a mix of LCD and Mirasol displays. 
4. A main 6″ eInk screen for reading, a smaller touch eInk or LCD screen for navigation, and an eInk backscreen (book covers, custom images, custom text).
5. Use the second and third screens as a bookshelf and a store browser. 

Except for the triple folding screen designs (2. and 3.) you can’t help thinking that multiple screens are a dangerous idea. There’s a fine line between extra utility and total disaster.

Extra Screens just aren’t that good of an idea

Let’s think of all the things that could go wrong (and usually do) -

1. The second and third screens could be distracting.
2. It’s difficult for users to figure out what to do and what not to do with the additional screens.  
3. Additional screens add to size, weight, thickness, and price.
4. Adding additional screens adds to complexity and makes the eReader sluggish and buggy. The nook’s speed problems and bugs when it first came out are a perfect illustration.
5. If you use different screen technologies the eyes have to constantly adjust. Again, there’ll be people who will claim that switching between eInk and LCD has no adverse effect - For some people it does.
6. Different screens with different usage paradigms are confusing - touch one screen, don’t touch the other, and so forth.
7. You have to remember the context/location/state of each screen. A pretty big problem when you consider your brain usually can only hold 7+/- 2 items at a time in active memory.

It’s just a disaster.

Conclusion – One screen is Best

We’re left with some pretty simple thoughts -

1. One screen is probably best.
2. It’s probably best to make things very, very simple.
3. One function is probably best. If you do multiple functions it’s best not to have multi-tasking going on – visually or in hardware.

The big secret might be to stick to single screen eReaders and doing one thing at a time. It’s the path of least resistance for most users.

Filed under: thoughts Tagged: | path of least resistance, triple screen readers