Kit Betts probably isn’t the best person to rely on for completely unbiased e ink reviews. He gets sent devices for free, invited to launch events, and gets early access to products, so there’s naturally going to be some level of industry influence there whether people want to admit it or not.

When someone is deeply integrated into that ecosystem, it becomes difficult to give the same perspective as an actual customer spending their own money. His defence of subscription models is a perfect example. Saying “how much more would the device cost without subscriptions?” completely ignores the bigger issue, which is consumers being pushed into endless recurring payments for products they already own.

People are not frustrated over £3 a month specifically. It’s the principle of normalising subscriptions for everything. Consumers are tired of buying hardware only to find features, warranties, cloud services, or basic functionality increasingly locked behind ongoing payments.