The new Kohjinsha netbook features two 10-inch screens, which can be pulled out side by side. This seems like a good solution for translators to work with their documents in one screen, and Google/dictionaries/translation memory in the other.

According to the video, the price point will be below ¥100,000 (about $1,000).

As PC ownership increased, however, demand for dedicated word processors waned. Toshiba, the first company to make a Japanese-language dedicated word processor, ended support of its last model in 2006.

Excerpt from the article (translated by me):

Toshiba has announced that it will end support of its Rupo series of stand-alone word processors at the end of March [2006]. In September 1978, Toshiba became the world's first manufacturer to release a Japanese-capable word processor, the JW-10. This announcement marks the end of a three-decade word processor business.

The waapuro occupied a window of time similar to that of the electronic typewriter in the English-speaking world, slightly longer due to the slower uptake of PCs in Japan and the unsuitability of mechanical typewriters for the Japanese language.

Stand-alone electronic dictionaries are now going through the same decline. As smart phones and netbooks become more capable, dedicated devices like electronic dictionaries aren't cost effective, and they take up too much space as well.

When you can buy a netbook for the retail price of an electronic dictionary, the choice seems pretty much a no-brainer to me. True, electronic dictionaries come with a nice collection of dictionaries that you'd have to pay for otherwise, but those dictionaries are locked to your device: buy a new device, and you've got to buy your dictionaries all over again.

In terms of cost of ownership, it's a better deal to buy the CD versions of the dictionaries you need, and keep them as you migrate devices. Most of these dictionaries are available online now anyway, many of them for free. I personally subscribe to the Kenkyusha Online Dictionary service, which includes a vast selection of top-notch J-J and J<->E dictionaries.

This electronic dictionary from Sharp includes an impressive array of dictionaries. But priced at ¥36,750 (about US $393 at today's exchange rate), it's about what you'd pay for a netbook. Sharp must be having trouble getting this thing off the shelves, because the same product is available at Amazon Japan for just ¥7,830 (about US $83).

Even at this price, though, these devices don't hold a lot of attraction for me. I got my son a netbook (a Dell Mini 10) for his birthday, and I've been eying it jealously ever since. It seems much more attractive to have a device that can do everything that an electronic dictionary can do, as well as everything else that a real computer can do.

This is especially true now, when most translators I know rely far more on Google than dictionaries.

I predict that the portable electronic dictionary is going to go the way of the stand-alone "waapuro" within a couple of years.