The promise of electronic newspapers has been around for many decades, but the reality appears to be right around the corner. While Amazon’s Kindle has sparked interest in E Ink technology, the high price, small screen size, and mixed-reviews have limited the appeal of the gadget to early adopters and eccentric, erudite billionaires. I embellish only to make the point that e-books and e-newspapers are, at this point and time, a niche product with potentially huge appeal if the manufacturers are able to allay current criticisms.
Along comes Plastic Logic’s yet unnamed E Ink portable reader that hopes to improve on at least one of the above complaints, namely size. Plastic Logic’s reader is the size of an 8 ½ x 11 piece of paper and is only a third as wide as the Kindle. It is aimed specifically at business users and is expected to be released in the first half of 2009.
Therefore, two questions remain. When will the price of e-readers drop to the point where law students can afford them, and when will casebook publishers support this new medium?
Stay tuned.