eReaders are great for casual readers, not so great for highlighting and notes

The Atlantic has an essay about the state of eReaders written by Alan Jacobs, an English professor at Wheaton College. Here's a summary:

• Both eReaders and tablets are making it easier to read at night, with front lights (eReaders) and dimmable backlights (tablets). 
• E Ink displays on eReaders are still far superior to LCD displays on tablets when it comes to glare. 
• The contrast of eReader displays has improved considerably. 
• eReaders have limited typeface options and do a poor job of handling kerning and spacing. (A large part of the problem is EPUB, which emphasizes dynamic page flow to the detriment of just about everything else.) 
• Highlighting and annotation, which are very important for literature studies, are all but impossible with eReaders. The trend to replace dedicated keyboards with on-screen keyboards has made annotation even more difficult. On the other hand, tablets handle highlighting and annotation much better, although they still have some quirks. For example, it's impossible to extend a highlight across a page break on the iPad (although it can easily be done on Nook and Kindle eReaders.) 

The bottom line is that eReaders and tablets are generally improving for general reading, but for engaged reading, there's been little improvement, and in some ways eReaders' capabilities are moving backwards.

Qualcomm to license, not build, future Mirasol displays

The Digital Reader's Nate Hoffelder reports that Qualcomm has announced that it will license, rather than manufacture, the next generation of its color Mirasol displays. Hoffelder writes that the Mirasol display was difficult to manufacture, which led to high prices that made devices using the displays uncompetitive. It's unlikely that other companies will license the display, given Qualcomm's problems and the rapid market transition to tablets with LCD- and OLED-based displays.

The HDTV business is in a crisis--and Apple wants in?

Fortune is reporting that the HDTV market is in crisis mode. According to the latest numbers from NPD, worldwide TV shipments fell by 8% year-over-year in Q1 2012, the steepest drop since Q2 2009. Shipments of LCD TV sets fell in Q1 year-over-year for the first time ever. LCD shipments fell over 3% and plasma TV shipments fell 18%, on top of an 8% decline in Q4 2011.

According to the article, thanks to dramatic price drops, everyone who wants a big-screen TV most likely already has one. According to Paul Gagnon, NPD DisplaySearch's director of North America TV Research, "At present we see that 70% to 80% of households have a flat panel set." In addition, consumers have rejected 3D and connected TVs that were intended to boost sales. In general, Gagnon says that consumers aren't replacing their flat-panel TV because they've failed, but rather, because they want bigger ones. When they go to the store, they see that prices have dropped, and they can buy a bigger set for the same amount of money that they spent for their smaller set the last time. Other features besides screen size are secondary--given the same price, consumers will go for the bigger set with fewer features, rather than the smaller one with more features.

Given this environment, what's the market opportunity for Apple's rumored TV? The company can probably make a go of it with a niche product, but it's difficult to see Apple being willing to fight for market share with price-sensitive buyers, which is where the volume is. As much as Steve Jobs thought that he's "cracked the TV problem," if he were alive today, he might consider whether HDTVs have become another high-volume, low-margin business like PCs, from which Apple is weaning itself.

Dolby introduces a reference monitor...video monitor, that is

Dolby is primarily known for its professional audio processing equipment, but the company announced a jump into the video reference monitor business with the PRM-4200, a 42-inch LCD monitor with colorimetry that it claims compares to the best CRT monitors and even digital cinema projectors. An array of 4,500 red, green and blue LEDs behind the LCD provide a much higher contrast ratio and better colorimetry than that available with conventional backlights.

Just as audio recording studios often have inexpensive speakers that allow producers and engineers to hear how a mix will sound on consumer equipment, the PRM-4200 can also show how video content will look on inexpensive LCDs in consumers' living rooms. All that flexibility comes at a price, however, and in this case the price will be between $34,000 and $50,000 when it ships later this year. (Dolby isn't known for cheap equipment.)

A number of recent tests have shown that consumer LCDs and plasma displays are getting closer and closer to the performance of reference monitors, so the question for Dolby is how many PRM-4200s it can sell at those prices. Critical applications such as motion picture editing and color correction can justify the price, but the overall market is going to be limited. On the other hand, the technology in the PRM-4200 is similar to that of existing high-end consumer monitors, so Dolby's enhancements are likely to trickle down into the consumer market before too long.