Have you noticed how Onyx hasn’t been releasing as many new models as they did in previous years?
Onyx used to release upwards of a dozen new ereaders and eNotes per year, to the point where it turned into a running joke, but things have really slowed down over the past year or so.
So far, Onyx has only released 3 new models this year for the international market, although they did release others in China.
They used to regularly release “plus” or “pro” models with a few minor upgrades every 6 months or so, but they haven’t been doing that at all lately.
Their 13.3″ Boox Tab X has been on the market for nearly two years now without an upgrade—that’s unheard of by Onyx’s standards. They used to release a new version every year.
They haven’t released any new “Tab” models at all this year, and they phased out the 7.8″ Nova line last year. All three new models this year have been “Go” models, with the Go 6, the Go 7 Color and the Go 10.3 (and none really have anything in common other than the name).
Going off the numbers at Amazon, the phone-sized Boox Palma appears to be one of Onyx’s most popular models, and it was released over a year ago. I’m surprised Onyx hasn’t released a new version of it, or one with a color screen, especially now that Bigme has released a color E Ink phone that’s the same price as the black and white Palma. The old Onyx would’ve released a plus version and a color version by now, at the very least.
Last year they released 8 different models (I think; it’s hard to keep track at that pace). There was the Poke5, the Boox Page, the Tab Mini C, along with the Tab Ultra C and Tab Ultra C Pro, the Boox Palma, and the Note Air 3 and Note Air 3C.
For some reason things have really slowed down at Onyx this year. Frankly, it’s kind of nice to see they’re sticking with current models for more than the usual 6-12 months, but it makes you wonder what’s going on exactly. There’s still 2 months left in the year so they still have time to add more new models to the list, but it doesn’t look like they’re going to come close to the number of new devices they released in recent years.
Could they be putting lots of energy in a Gallery 3 device?
I just wonder if Onyx will bring out such a device.
It feels to me that with the flashing upon screen updates that Gallery 3 is a lot less fit for Android.
So maybe they are developing some alternative to Android?
I assume that would take a lot of development resources.
Just guessing why they are suddenly releasing less devices.
I also wonder if any other Gallery 3 devices will come out soon.
It could be they’re working on their own Gallery 3 devices, and if they get things right they’ll probably release 10 new models, but I don’t think they’re going to move away from Android at this point when that’s one of their main advantages.
Do you think it possible to use Gallery 3 with Android as a tablet?
It seems to me that the flashing you get upon updates would severely hinder many of the Android apps.
The flashing seems to be inherent to the Gallery 3 technology.
I assume a Sudoku app might still work, but try using it with an app that requires a bit more screen updates and it would be flashing quite a lot.
So I think they could make an Android-based device, but I think a big number of the apps would not be usable, unless they can somehow reduce the flashing, so they need some kind of a speed mode, but is that possible with this technology?
For instance, I wonder what scrolling would look like on such a device, like in a web browser.
Maybe Onyx could pull off smoother refreshing with their BSR technology. Remarkable is pretty low on the E Ink scale when it comes to innovation and software refinement (the RE Pro is only their 3rd device ever), so I’m sure there’s some room for improvement, but it’ll probably take some time.
Onyx is apparently about to release 6.2, 10.3 & 13.3 inch readers: Palma 2, Note4 Air C, and Note Max. I have readers from AMZ, Kobo, Remarkable, and others, but look forward to these choices.
If the Boox Note Max gets a ppi boost from the Max Lumi series, that might make large screen reading especially nice. There seem few higher ppi, large screen e-ink choices so far.
(Screen) size counts for a lot.
Thanks for reminding me. I’ve been so distracted with the new Kindles I forgot about the new Booxs. Apparently the new Boox Max does have 300 ppi.