Nearly four years ago, after weeks of experimenting reading electronic books on my Palm handheld computer, I wrote a short essay here called “Hooked on Ebooks“. I thought that the electronic book as displayed on a small handheld device was an idea whose time had come. I was wrong. Or rather, I was ahead of my time.

Last week’s edition of Newsweek had a cover story with a photo of Jeff Bezos, the founder of Amazon.com, clutching his company’s brand-new Kindle device (pictured, left). The cover story went over much old ground — like how amazing it would be to have a device that could bring you any book you want within a minute, or that could carry a whole bag full of books (for a long trip) in a single, tiny device.
Of course, all this was true in early 2004 as well. The big difference is that the Kindle will have a much bigger, better and clearer screen.
But the basic idea — tiny handheld device, easy-to-download books whenever you want, carries loads of books — hasn’t changed.
And so far, the new products aren’t blowing me away.
The Kindle only works in America. So does the Sony Reader.
And the one device they seem to be selling over here in the UK is the iLiad (pictured, right) — and it costs a staggering £433 — that’s $870 to you over there in the US.
Amazon’s product costs its US consumers “only” $400 — less than half of an iLiad — but still a whopping sum. The cheapest of the three is the Sony Reader, now going for $280.
Meanwhile, I continue to read my ebooks on my trusty, still-functioning Palm Tungsten C. And you can pick up one of these on eBay for less than $100.
I’ve bought books from two online shops in the last few days — one of which is charging a whopping $20 to download the latest blockbuster from James Patterson. The other — which I stumbled on via Google — is charging only $10, for the same book. There may be better bargains elsewhere.
I’ve read two ebooks this weekend already — and I remain hooked on them. But I won’t pay $870 to buy an ebook reader, thank you.