[stonetools]

Then you must not know much about ebook devices. The technical obstacles are *huge*; that's why there aren't ad-supported ebooks at the moment. Every method designed for making an ebook force ads on the reader, also restricts the readership to a very narrow fraction of the market.

Of course, people thought ad-supported ereading devices were technically infeasible too-until Amazon came out with the KSO.
History is full of things that were thought technically infeasible until someone did it.

You mentioned how freemium products work; you didn't mention why anyone should think book publishers -- who screamed bloody murder at the idea of $10 ebooks that they received full payments for -- would accept it.

Games are generally played many, many times; the ads are therefore viewed many times. Books are often read exactly once. And there's a huge difference between "ad-supported device" and "ad-supported product using that device."

Newspapers are usually read only once.
Magazines are usually read only once.
Comics are usually read only once .
TV shows are usually watched only once.
Movies are usually watched only once

Types of books often read more than once .

*Self-help books
*Manuals
*reference books
*Inspirational books
* Textbooks

Publishers in the past have been quite willing to have their products subsidized by advertising. It is only the question of the right model.

In what software? My Sony & Astak won't support that. What file formats? Non-kindle Mobi readers on computers won't support it either.

The Kindle will support ads-as-screensavers; the current software won't support an ad that splashes on a particular ebook opening. And if new software were written (who's paying for that programming work?), how long would the "splash" last--if it's long enough to read a full page of ad text, the ad-stripping software will be very, very popular. Nobody wants a 30-second delay every time they open their ebook.

If it only opens at the beginning of the book, then it only gets viewed once.

If your argument is that it is technologically impossible to insert ads into ebooks, I very much doubt that. If your argument is that no one would be willing to pay to create that capability , well, I doubt that even more.

People for generations have watched TV with 30 second or longer breaks every few minutes
*Have listened to radio with 30 second ads several times an hour
*Have read newspapers, magazines and comics broken up by ads
*Have browsed websites, played games, and used software with banner ads blinking at them

My conclusion is that people will put up with quite a bit for discount or free. Maybe you wouldn't, but others would.

Of course somebody would take that deal. The question is, who'd be paying the other $5 x however many people wanted that deal?

I dunno. Maybe the same folks who advertise in the banner ads in my freemium games or who pay for all those Web ads that appear beside my search results, etc. There's no shortage of ad money out there.

It says that software designers think it can work; it doesn't say that publishers are willing to support that model.

Those software designers were paid by investors , who presumably heard and rejected your argument that freemium for ebooks is impossible. Now you may be right, but there are people who are willing to bet pots of money that you are wrong. In a few months we'll find out.