Sony is taking another stab at introducing a device on which you can read digitized books. I fail to understand why they believe there is a market for this kind of device.

1) Price - Why would anyone pay $300 - $400 for a device on which they can read ‘books’ that themselves will also cost essentially the same price as if they bought an actual physical book from the store?

Additionally when I carry an actual book and lose it or spill on it I only lose the book ($12-$25) not the device and the books on it.

2) Form Factor - to actually display a page of text in a readable format the device needs to have a large screen and consequently have a large form factor. Who wants to carry around a PDA, Cell Phone, Laptop, iPod and another device to read books when I already have a bagful of technology.

3) DRM - When I buy a book I own it. I can give it to others to read when I am done. Leave it to the publishers to prevent this type of use case with digital material.

Net-Net: It is far more likely that e-books will take off when I can load some special software optimized for book reading on one of my existing multitasking devices (Laptop, music player, PDA) rather than buying one trick pony from Sony.

Curling Up With a Good E-Book