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Well everyone is entitled to their opinion. You can't logically predict what people will choose to use. If you applied his same logic to paper books they're a dead end technology too. Why would anyone want to carry around a dedicated pile of bound paper that only does one thing, and only tells one story?
I personally don't want a dedicated ebook reader either but any technical design is a series of compromises and I don't want to compromise on my reading experience to consolidate to a multifunction device. The design considerations of what would make a really good reading device don't marry well with other technologies. There are enough people that love reading that a dedicated ebook reader will be a viable product line (IMHO). Not everyone needs to have one to make it viable. Maybe someday a wonder technology will come along to let me replace everything on a single device but I wouldn't predict the failure of all dedicated devices based on the dream.
I thought it was amusing that he compared the Kindle to the Wii in the story because IMHO it contradicts his argument. The Wii is a dedicated gaming device. I have a PS3 that from a technical specifications standpoint is a far more powerful device, plays DVD and Blue-ray movies, has internet browsing, chat, audio, media streaming etc... but the Wii is outselling it 4:1 because the Wii does one thing and does it really well. It also hit the price point people wanted.
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