A couple of weeks ago, I might have made it sound as though the netbook was going to be the next cool machine. I need to clarify.
Netbooks are growing in popularity. But they’re admittedly limited. Their screens are too small, for one thing.
What makes them a big deal is not that they represent the endpoint of electronic communications device development. Instead, they’re a starting point.
The Amazon cover story in the latest Fast Company talks about the Kindle and the potential for e-reader competition from Apple. It’s a good read (electronically or otherwise) on this increasingly hot space. But the real highlight is this wonderful infographic which suggests that what the market really wants is not an electronic device that simply allows you to read a book or magazine.
It’s a device that allows you to read books, newspapers, and magazines, search the Web, check your e-mail, access and write documents, maybe take a call.
I’m not a tech guy. I’m not entranced with computers for their own sake. But I love what online technology delivers so efficiently—things to read and learn from, plus the capability to write your own material.
The coming device I’m picturing (I doubt this is an original idea) would resemble a very thin laptop. It would be very light. Open it, and there’d be no keyboard—just two screens, facing each other.
Fire it up, and you’d have the choice of using it to read a book or magazine—laid out with facing “pages” on the two screens. News “papers” would be available in this format as well. You’d go from page to page by tapping a button (or other icon) on the screen.
Turn it sideways, and it would convert into a laptop. One screen would become a tappable keyboard. A plug-in on the side would allow you to install a regular keyboard, if you find a tap-screen keyboard too hard to get used to. Voilà! Wireless Internet access.
Despite its many capabilities, this would be a pretty stripped-down device. Much like a netbook, but with e-reader capabilities. It wouldn’t have much software loaded into it—cloud computing would take care of that. This would be primarily a media tool. The cloud could open up additional business possibilities.
Would you download newspapers and magazines via a paid subscription model? Especially if the screens—providing rich color, of course—could provide the embracing aesthetics and physicality of a “real” publication? Why not? Music and e-books are cheap, but not free, after all.
More tech-savvy readers can tell me how likely something like this is. But after seeing what’s arisen the past few years, it seems very likely that this device—or different versions of it—is on its way.
It’s what I want, anyway.
UPDATE: The Big Money argues that current e-reading technology has a long way to go to be truly useful. No doubt my imaginary device would take care of the problems mentioned here.
BTW: I tweet from time to time on (mostly) business-related topics on Twitter at @generebeck.
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