What’s It With e-Readers – Dual-Screen Kno
Saturday, November 13, 2010, 5:06 AM | Leave Comment
Another e-Reader has come on board. This one is called Kno. I guess the founders didn’t like the “k” being so silent all the time in the word “know” so they called their portable device “Kno” as the new entry in the not-so-saturated-as-yet e-Reader market. That’s not the official explanation of the name, of course. One big difference between Kno and other such devices is that it is dual-screen. You ask a question on one screen and the answer appears on the second side-by-side. What can be more soothing to your eyes than that?
Co-founder and CEO of Kno – Osman Rashid – says…
“The problem with other e-Readers is that none of them can pan up and down or side-ways on a small screen. You can only see a portion of the content. It’s just not conducive to a learning experience. Therefore, Kno’s primary target is students and teachers at all levels.
The Kno offers split-screen functionality and allows students to write notes and collaborate with teachers and other students.
Rashid says the company’s long-term strategy is to eventually concentrate on the software side of the device. It will then offer an ecosystem that could run on any device out in the world.
The CEO believes the iPad and other e-readers are super devices if you want to just read e-books. The iPad from Apple Inc. coming on board a while back has accelerated the market’s development.
He believes iPad in particular not only makes publishers their content available much faster. It also helps the supply chain deliver products faster.
Major Features
Among other things, Kno’s major features are:
- Read books, obviously
- Write notes
- Highlight passages
- Browse the web
- Research and study
- Does a back-up automatically so students can have their years of data in just one place, probably for a monthly fee.
- Kno sells its own accessories as well.
Kno is a Read/Write device as opposed to just Read. The built-in applications include Reader, Notebook, and Browser.
In a Nutshell
Any entry in the e-Reader market by any company is always welcome by consumers. One huge advantage is the consumer has more choices now and prices have come down a lot. Some e-Readers now cost less than $200.
Osman is a serial entrepreneur who has strong interests in the world of education, and is the founding CEO of Chegg. My son has started renting his college books from Chegg. He saves more than 40% money on textbooks by renting.
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