as you research this idea more you'll run across the Kindle experiment at a US east coast college (I think it was on the east coast though it really doesn't matter). The gist of the experiment was there is a looooong way to go before readers are ready as textbook replacements. For novels and literature in general they are great. But when a person begins to need to keep multiple books open at the same time or refer back and forth between sections in a book none of the current readers has the right stuff under the hood.
Of course color is very significant but there needs to be a strong effort at something in the area of "study/research management" apps. I figure the final product will be along the lines of a tabbed browser looking like MS OneNote or even Evernote. Also a touch interface to allow notes but odds are a separate device like the new Asus Eee Note EA-800 as there are times you need a book open during a lecture.
A device like the Entourage Edge might be the ideal form factor. Actually there have been a couple proposed dual display devices. I am betting the final device will be more of a general purpose thingy with dual displays because, well one is not going to be enough for most subjects.
I also know that Pocketbook is actively working on educational use of their readers and refining the software in Ukraine. So look at Pocketbook to be a bigger player in the educational market than many might even suspect right now. They get it that it's all about the software and that is going to dictate the hardware design rather than trying to adapt software to the limitations of a given hardware design.
None of the existing dedicated readers seems all that promising for study, even non-academic research is iffy as I don't know of any that truly work with multiple open apps. You know like a notepad and a few books as well as a browser. Some of the newest multipurpose tablets are promising but you do run into the issue of the limits from a single display. Also in most cases you will really need at least a 12" diagonal in about a 4:3 screen ratio (physical ratio not to be confused with pixels as that has zero to do with screen dimensions) even a 16:10 might be OK as long as the dimensions don't make the screen itself to "skinny".
There have be a number of threads on this topic over the years so you can find a number of discussions here on MR if you sleuth them out. It's a great starting point and this thread is one of the more promising since it's from a different perspective than people who just use their device for novels. Hope you keep it going!!
