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Personally, I think that the current execution is solid (although obviously it's still a work in progress), but that parts of the UI on both the eInk and LCD are not an intuitive as one might think. I was able to acclimate myself to my dad's new iPad in about 5 minutes without consulting a manual or even a help menu; for the eDGe, it took considerably (and as I said before, I'm still discovering new tricks and features) plus referencing the user's guide and searching this forum to figure out how to do some stuff. I've never used a iPhone/iTouch (and only a iPod briefly), so it's not a matter of being more familiar with the iPhone OS (I had also never used the Android OS before the eDGe). Rather, the intuitiveness of the iPad comes from the fact that it does fewer functions with a more intuitive UI. Since the eDGe is a much more complicated device, it requires considerably more time to learn than a iPad or a device that is exclusively an eReader. Even if the user is relatively tech savvy.
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I agree with you, walt.
I purchased the EE without any demo, as many others here. I had been following ereaders for about a year and a half, and was just not willing to spend the $$ on a 'one trick pony.' I had finally decided to purchase the 'Alex', and I googled them to get back to their website, and one of the hits was a post at 'mobileread' where someone was asking about the Entourage Edge. I ended up at the Entourage site, and my decision was made in a couple of hours, because I had a large ereader on one side, and a 'sizeable' lcd for browsing and other apps. It was like, wow... and I'm not one to buy 1st generation... this was my first time for that.
But, I whole-heartedly agree with the learning curve. It has taken me some time to learn about 'hidden menus', with Boris' help, and others. I really hope when the sdk comes out that someone will be willing to change the UI, at least within apps, because the eDGe certainly has the environment, in terms of 'real estate' to accommodate that. After all, Entourage has done that with their 'toolbars' on the eReader side.