Digital Books – Worthy or worthless?

Mobile technology is springing up everywhere and these new devices are allowing us to take our entertainment where ever we go. Many of these new devices are a real benefit to our life while others simply appear to be a last ditch effort to keep an industry from changing. I see the new digital book devices as one of these efforts to cling to the past.

Just last week my son and I were disagreeing on the value of this type of technology for the newspaper industry. Surprisingly he was in favor of a digital newspaper while I failed to see the value. I felt the local newspapers were missing the point that paper print was dying and they needed to adjust their subscriptions to allow customers to receive their local news online from devices they already had right in their homes. While he felt it would be better to keep the news in the same format it is today just deliver it on an electronic handheld device that is refreshed everyday.

Why would we purchase one of these $400 devices?