E-Book Readers, Tablets-The future...

My family members have always been early adopters of cool techy stuff. My mom always led the way, from the first little PC hooked up to a crappy black and white TV, to today's constantly used PC/Color scanner/printer etc. At 83 years old, she continues to learn and expand her computer universe.

Back in 1998, Mom jumped on the E-book bandwagon with the Rocket. I was 12 years into my Random House stint,and if there was much of a hue and cry, I don't recall it. (I'd wager there were a few doomsayers...). I do, however, remember her excitement at using the hardware, and I am quite aware that she continues to LOVE the rocket, even though I shelled out 350 bucks for the first gen Sony Reader. Why? She wants it back-lighted, 'cause she like to turn off the light and read in bed! No fancy grey-scale "looks just like the book" argument holds water with her. The Sony gathers dust...

This leads me to make a bold statement: The Kindle will be but a blip on the radar of e-reader history. All of the hoopla will shift, quickly, to the piece of hardware that gives consumers what they want. Full color, fast internet, magazines, newspapers, and yes, a backlight.

The fact that Amazon will fail in it's attempt to control the content may be more of a factor. More later on that.