Trials: The New E-Book Readers.

This article offers an outlook on the electronic book market in the U.S. Walt Crawford cited several reasons why electronic books have done poorly, including ergonomics, DRM, pricing, and, most importantly, electronic books are a solution in search of a problem. Potentially changing the outlook for this market was the commercial implementation of a digital ink display technology that provides paper-like reading comfort and long battery life. Sony Electronics, Inc. announced its Sony Reader for e-books on January 4, 2006 during the Consumer Electronics Show. After agreements with several major publishing companies, more than 10,000 electronic book titles are available to be downloaded to the reader via the companion PC software and the CONNECT store.