I'm just curious if anyone else here reads ebooks, what you read them on, and where you think they're going. Getting familiar with ebooks a couple months ago, I was shocked to discover the underdeveloped state of the industry, but on reflection it makes sense, given that there was no widespread medium for reading them until recently, with post-iPhone PDA displays and now, netbooks. Dedicated e-readers remain too expensive for most people to justify, though the Kindle has made some headway, particularly among older people.

My thinking is that dedicated eInk devices will fade out in the next 5-10 years as more lightweight, low cost mobile devices proliferate, from smart phones to full-function netbooks, and ebook functionality becomes more of a selling point for those devices. I do expect ebooks to make a big dent in the publishing of physical books in the near future, particularly for academic works and mass market paperbacks. Eventually, paperbacks may all but cease to exist, with hardcovers persisting mainly as collectors' items.