E-Readers the Center of Attention at Consumer Electronics Show

Along with 3D televisions and mobile devices and apps, e-readers were among the hottest products at the Consumer Electronics Show, held January 7-10 in Las Vegas. And technophiles internationally have been talking about the new players on the market, the prototypes of those still to be launched and what the future holds for this exploding market.

According to Engadget, "The CES show floor is absolutely littered with electronic ink also-rans, hybrids, and new screen technologies looking to knock-off the incumbent Kindle, underlying E Ink technology, and Amazon juggernaut."

Friday's Yahoo's Tech blog. Christopher Null wrote, "Never mind 3D televisions. If there's one gadget that's positively exploding at CES this week, it's electronic book readers."

As Thomas Ricker of Engadget wrote: "… We begin to see the story of a 2010 e-reader market that extends way beyond just e-books to include newspapers and magazines augmented with audio and full-color animations, video, and imagery. As such, dedicated monochrome E-Ink devices like Kindle and the Sony Reader will be forced even deeper into the niche they now serve as the year plays out. One thing's for sure -- monochrome electronic ink displays are not the future of e-readers. If you ask us, the smart money is on multi-purpose devices running hybrid displays from Pixel Qi (or similar) like Notion Ink's Adam. Not only does this avoid lock in to a single content provider, but you maintain full Internet access with the ability to subscribe to materials from Skiff, Barnes & Noble, Borders, Blio, Google, and iTunes, for example, while enjoying the type of rich multimedia experiences that main stream media publications are keen to pursue."

Among the most new e-reading devices most talked about are the forthcoming 11.5-inch Skiff reader, from Hearst Corp., which enables 3G connectivity via Sprint, features a flexible display screen and is said to be the thinnest reader on the market to date.