Past attempts to produce a good portable eBook reader have been disappointing at best. Flawed in design and format support (What! You want to be able to read PDFs?!) they have deservedly flopped. Finally, we may have a sensible offering.

From the reviews I’ve read (here, and here) this is not a perfect product, but it sounds like the Sony Reader is a reader that is finally good enough to use. A product that will actually be comfortable to hold, won’t hurt your eyes and won’t restrict what you can can download onto it. Even if it doesn’t take off like the iPod did, it should offer some market traction.

To be honest, the pictures doesn’t sell it for me, but the point of an eBook reader is that it has a different type of screen — one that is almost like paper.

The Sony® Reader’s display uses e Ink® - a significant improvement over CRT and LCD technology. Instead of rows of glowing cells, e Ink® microcapsules actually appear as either black or white depending on a positive or negative charge determined by the content. The result is a reading experience that’s similar to paper - high contrast, high resolution, viewable in direct sunlight and at a nearly 180-degree angle, and requiring no power to maintain the image. In other words, it’s a screen that, like you, is well read.

(from the official site)

That’s the kind of thing you have to see for yourself, so I think this will sell via word-of-mouth more than general advertising.

A couple of posts down I wrote about the dream of having a secret room behind a bookcase. I also said by time I have the opportunity to do so, all my books will probably be electronic. Looks like we’re drawing closer to that situation. I won’t be too sad to see my books disappear, however. The main benefit of having real books on a shelf is that people can look through and see your collection and what you are interested in. The possibilities of socialising book collections on the Internet are huge.

One negative point I see if it becomes a good RSS reader like Mike Cane’ says, is that it will reduce interactivity. If we can’t use the machine to leave comments we obviously won’t leave comments. This would be a shame in many cases.

Oh, and we need to find new work for paperboys.

Actually one thing that may sound negative, but I don’t think ultimately will be, is the possibility of a loss of jobs in publishing and related work. The age of automation is picking up pace and taking jobs, but these are generally jobs that people are not all that passionate about. It also means prices will fall for more products — sometimes to nothing. One possible outcome is that people will choose to work fewer hours so they can work on their passions instead. Free open source software is the first sign that people are willing to work for free when they can. I believe we will see a lot more of that.

This is one of those products that will change the world. Which actually isn’t a very bold claim if you look at computers, cars, Walkmans, vacuum cleaners, televisions, modems, mobile phones, the electric guitar… They all play a surprisingly large part in shaping how we live. If Sony has got it right, this will be their next Walkman.