Opinions about the future?
Well in the future almost every device will be an eReader, we are pretty much there now. My father reads books on his Motorola Droid and I am reading books on a Sony PSP gaming device.
Back-lit LCD is fine as long as you can turn the lighting down. Nothing wrong with e-ink either. Many portable devices charge by USB or the wall these days so power is not so much a problem. Wireless access is ubiquitous (McDonald's Starbucks, etc.) and will become even more so.
The Dedicated eReader Market... it will not go away. Big companies will continue to analyze this market and will allocate a level of funding for the development of technology appropriate to the kinds of profit they think the market will bear.
http://www.engadget.com/2010/09/01/s...entire-reader/
So in 2020 there may be a dedicated device that holds all the books you can buy in one life and which runs for two months on one charge.
Therefore the main issue for the future that I see is, an issue for both dedicated and non-dedicated reading devices...
not sure how the center-of-gravity for ebook consumers is going to shift in regards to whether they need to own the books they purchase.
http://freedomforip.org/2010/02/04/d...ebooks-part-1/
If the mass of consumers are comfortable with leasing DRM books in 2010, fine; but will the mass still be content when their libraries of books will no longer download to the latest Sony or Apple device in 2020? I am not sure how this is going to ultimately sort out.
Everyone knows the Library of Congress has to face this issue of changing formats and archival bookshelves too, so my problems in this regard are tiny compared to theirs.
http://www.digitalpreservation.gov/
So yes, in 2020 I expect you will still be able to purchase a nice dedicated eReader from somebody, just do not know if your Fictionwise.com bookshelf in mobipocket format will still be there for you to download.