There's an article that explores why ebooks haven't caught on with the bookish crowd. There's some good insight here, particularly in his comparison of ebook readers to ipod devices. Computers can spit out music as well as a walkman, but who jogs with a notebook?: "A truly portable, take-anywhere device with an outstanding display and long battery life are essential for really enjoying an eBook or magazine." He also thinks that color is important: "Nobody is going to get really hot for eBooks until the display technology supports full color, even if they don't need color for what they'll publish and read." I can agree with this. It's starting to sound like Nintendo's new DS might be the solution !!

However, the author soon runs into trouble when he starts defending DRM: "We'll need a great eBook reader with trendy clout and not just livable, but convenient, DRM to really break open the market." It's the same old, "Our artists must get paid" nonsense that's responsible for so much of pulp we're seeing now and the hostility towards true innovation/creativity. I'd take the opposite SPIN:

Ebooks and ebook readers will get popular at the same moment they are able to easily and freely circumvent DRM. If you can get the latest news, magazines, and novels for free and read them on an ebook reader, guess what--people will want one of those handy gadgets. What shocks me is that some newspapers and magazines haven't already gotten together and decided to giveaway free ebook readers that can deliver up their content for free (oh, you get the ADs too, yayayaya).

Overall, though, I think ebooks and ebook readers haven't caught on for a very obvious reason: The book format just doesn't make sense in an online environment. These books are like "dead ends" with no links or other net features. Novel writers can't take what they know about writing damn good novels and apply it directly to making good E-anything!

If people really want to know how to get people reading things on a portable e-book type device, the place to go is the websites of the most popular bloggers. These people have learned how to build an audience and keep them enthralled.