Let e-Readers Be e-Readers

Since February, however, the combination of unexpected sales growth for Kindles at Amazon, including the release of a larger, more versatile reader—the Kindle DX—has begun to suggest that we may be moving in the opposite direction, toward a highly specialized reading-centric device.

Amazon isn't alone in this ambition. The imminent launch of the Plastic Logic product and rumors that Hearst is far along in creating a new reading service that will support a broad range of content makes that trajectory more plausible.

With this in mind, I persuaded the folks at Plastic Logic to give us a preview of their product. At the same time, Amazon graciously provided me with a Kindle DX.

First, I should come clean about my own hopes and expectations for these devices. In many ways, I'm the ideal consumer for a reading platform. I read a lot of books and periodicals and, for a number of years, I've been keenly exploring how writers could benefit from digital distribution. So I can be accused of having hopes for these readers that are too high.

The CEO of one big publishing company says that books will be at an advantage for being the last major medium to be digitized. But I fear consumers who have become accustomed to digital content that is breathtaking on the Internet (and pretty good on their smartphones) will have less patience with the limitations of these E Ink-based devices. For example, everyone asks when E Ink will support color, but machines have still not mastered basic black and white.

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