omputer, unlike the Sony
Reader. 580.000 Kindles were sold in 2008. A thinner and
revamped Kindle 2 was launched in February 2009, with a storage
capacity of 1,500 ebooks, a new text-to-speech feature, and a
catalog of 230,000 ebooks on Amazon.com's website.

Can reading devices like Sony Reader and Kindle really compete
with cellphones and smartphones? Will people prefer reading on
mobile handsets like the iPhone 3G (with its Stanza Reader) or
the T-Mobile G1 (with Google's platform Android and its
reader), or will they prefer using reading devices to get a
larger screen? Or is there a market for both smartphones and
reading devices? These are some fascinating questions for the
next years. I personally dream about a big flat screen on one
of my walls, where I could display my friends' interactive PDFs
and hypermedia stories, when I won't be on a budget anymore. In
the meantime, I enjoy my netbook, including to read ebooks.

The next generation of reading devices - expected for 2010-11 -
should display color and multimedia/hypermedia content with a
revamped E Ink technology.

The company Plastic Logic has become a key player for new
products. As explained on its website: "Technology for plastic
electronics on thin and flexible plastic substrates was
developed at Cambridge University's renowned Cavendish
Laboratory in the 1990s. In 2000, Plastic Logic was spun out of
Cavendish Laboratory to develop a broad range of products using
the plastic electronics technology. (...) Plastic Logic has
raised over $200M in financing from top-tier venture funding
sources in Asia, Europe and the U.S. We are using the funds to
complete product development in England and the USA, build a
specialized, scalable production facility in Germany, and build
our go-to-market teams." Plastic Logic intends to launch in
2010 a very thin and flexible 10.7' plastic screen, using
proprietary plastic electronics and the E Ink technology.

Reading devices can count on some fierce competition with
smartphones. In February 2009, the 1.5 million public-domain
books available in Google Books - and 500,000 more outside the
U.S. because of variations of copyright law - were accessible
via mobile handsets such as the T-Mobile G1, released in
October 2008 with Google's platform Android and its reader.
Because of the small screens of mobile handsets, the ebooks are
in text format, and not in image format. Android is an open
source mobile device platform (