There has been a lot of talk about the Apple iPad and how it will kill the market for a dedicated eReader. As much as I see the potential for eBooks on the iPad, there are many people for whom a dedicated - and hence substantially cheaper - eReader will be quite fine thank you.

I came across this article in Wired regarding new chips that could lead to a $150 eReader. Not only will the new chips lead to a cheaper eReader, they will also lead to greater performance.

“This is the first chip that has been designed just for e-readers,” says Glen Burchers, director of marketing at Freescale. “Earlier, we had general-purpose processors being used in e-readers so they were not completely optimized.”

Freescale produces the chips that power nearly 90% of the eReaders on the market, including the Kindle and the Sony Reader.

The more powerful chips will result in a faster user interface, particularly for common tasks like page turns.

“Today page flips on a Kindle are in the range of 1.5 to 2 seconds, while the Nook (which uses a processor from Samsung) it can take up to 3 seconds for a page turn,” Burchers says. “With our new processors, that can be cut down to about half a second.”

The new chips will also allow eReaders to add new features such as touch capability and additional functions (aka apps).

If dedicated eReaders continue to improve in performance and drop in price, there will continue to be a place for them even in the face of the iPad and the other tablets that are sure to flood the market.