E - 're we go

The other week I commented on a story about developments with roll-up screens and commented that things had gone a bit quiet on the e-book front. However they are quiet no longer following the move by Sony to take the wraps off its e-book store, which according to Reuters will launch next week.
The idea is that deals with the top six publishers will provide the store with about 10,000 books that are designed to be read on the manufacturers portable reader device that the news wire reports is finally ready to go after the e-book store launch was held up earlier this year because of technical glitches.
It will be interesting to see if making books available as digital downloads has the same impact on the book business as the equivalent in music has on the high street chains including most obviously HMV. There is always a great deal of talk about platforms, media and audiences around these types of developments and no doubt the type of people who download books will be different to those who buy paperbacks and the market should grow. All we need to cap it off is Apple’s iPod’s incorporating books and the market should be complete.