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Just bringing my own experience to the discussion, on the issue of weight and fragility. I own a 9" device (Asus), which weighs around 450g without the cover, and 650 with. This sounds like a lot (to me it did), but thankfully I found out that it is not an issue. I often read on the move, but usually I find myself sitting on some public transport with the device on my knees, so weight is not a problem. Even when I am standing, the weight is not difficult to support (after all, what's the weight of a meaty paperback?).
I would gladly switch to a 12"/1kg unit, if it was available at a reasonable price. The weight would remain tolerable and I would get back the priceless possibility to read A4 documents without the need to zoom and/or pan. Let's suppose that a 12", glass-backed electrophoretic panel weighs 200g more than a 9" one (just guessing, but I think I am overestimating). This means that, starting from my Asus' specifications, such a device would have a weight of 650g, plus (say) 50 more for the larger enclosure. All in all, 700g, but *not taking into consideration the need for increased sturdiness* associated to a larger display. However, the remaining 300g (to reach my target weight of 1kg) should be more than enough to engineer in such sturdiness.
(Just an idea: using 150 of those 300g to add a very rigid backplane, and the remaining 150g for a hinged, rigid lid/cover that can be locked at the edges either to the screen side or to the rear of the device. This would provide increased resistance to flexion and full protection to the screen.)
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