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In all honesty this seems like one of those instances where new technology doesn't necessarily improve on the old. Printed books have been around forever but guess what - they still get the job done.

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your looking at Rev C of the technology. Rev D (at least I think it will be Rev D) is flexible E-paper. I've already experienced a demo, its a flexible fabric-like sheet that has no backlighting, the e-paper uses natural light sources just like real paper. My first experiance with this next-stage technology was around '05 when the magazine industry was projecting this technology's rollout in '09-'10, until last week I was a magazine publisher (congratulate me - I quit!) so I was exposed to advanced technology concepts in order to project our future business strategies. Although its being pitched as a book reader the primary us is expected to someday be newspaper & magazine content (at least thats what i was told a few years ago) with the book publishing industry leading the way because the cost of entry is lowest for them.

Major newsstand providers such as Hudson News Group are already preparing for this change, they are decreasing their magazine allotments in most (not all) stands nationwide while switching to alternative sources of revenue such as videos and travel supplies. They are also preparing upload station technologies, for example say you want to buy the NY Times at an airport - you might have a choice of paper or uploaded via USB to your E-Paper tablet.

The magazine industry's projection is commonly around 4-5 more years until the paper decrease starts to take place, nobody knows for sure but I have been projecting 2015 as the critical mass stage for E-Paper (this is just an instinctual guess).

love it or hate it, your looking at the first step for the future; this is how content will be commonly read in 10 years.