Will digital paper succeed?

Amazon reveiled their new electronic device to make digital books a success: the Amazon Kindle. It's not the first e-book reader, the Dutch book-chain Selexyz backs the Iliad of iRex technologies. Both the Iliad and Kindle use digital ink and promise that reading won't be anything like watching a computer screen. I was still a bit sceptical when the Iliad was introduced, I am an avid reader of magazines and one of the big plusses of a paper magazine is the joy of flipping pages. Also, the high quality photography of some magazines cannot be replaced by the black and white screens of the current devices. To my surprise the Kindle gets more negative than positive feedback.

Always a problem is the Digital Right Management. You can't easily copy a paper book, but this is a breeze with electronic copies. Many reviews state that use of the Kindle is hampered by the heavy use of DRM which limits the use of books you actually own. And a paper book will be on your shelves for as long as you like, but how do you know you can still read your digital copy if the format isn't supported anymore?

But could e-book reader ever become a success? At the moment, not many people know digital ink, so the digital is often confused for conventional screen technology. The Kindle offers some handy tools, like access to Amazon's NOWNOW-service that allows you to ask any question via the wireless network and before you know up to three answers are sent to your device. The device also features a dictionary and access to Wikipedia. It is easy to subscribe to newspaper and other magazines that are delivered as soon as they are published. But is any of this enough to justify buying this gadget? Some businessmen will like the fact they can access foreign newspapers easily, but these persons often travel abroad and the Kindle only works wirelessly in the States.

For now, I conclude that the readers are a mixed bag of options and the right approach is to see how the technology matures. Anyone with positive experiences?

EXTRA FIELD-5:Iliad, Kindle, digital ink, e-book