Quote:
Originally Posted by Worldwalker
Would the PalmPilot count, though, as ebooks were only one feature of a multi-use PDA?
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1- A lot of people bought PalmPilots (and PocketPCs) precisely as reading devices. Not many bought VT220s or even IBM PCs for ebooks.
2- A lot of the modern ebook industry dates *exactly* to the Palm Pilot.
Fictionwise and eReader (hence B&N) trace back to Peanut press for the Palm, as does does DocReader and the other pdb flavors (iSilo, etc). There is a reason Mobipocket files are .prc (as in Palm ResourCe). Palm's success in ebooks spurred Microsoft to join the Open Ebook effort and create Lit which in many ways paved the way for ePub. It also affected Nuvomedia and Rocket, creators of the first western ebook readers. Think of falling dominoes.
3- Yes, any proper history of ebook reading *devices* should take note of smartphones and linux and tablets and webpads. They're all countributors to the current state of the industry so why pretend they're not? Any proper history of ebook readers has to factor in the russian software contibutions, the japanese cellphone-based market, the chinese factories, the american hardware and software companies and ebookstores. The early failures and their legacies. Everything.
If we're looking to put the industry in proper historical perspective, *everything* should be in play.