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Well, you are right, sort of, but not right as well, b/c there are in fact a billion Muslims in the world, so that's actually not a small market, since while Arabs only make up about 15% of that, many non-Arab Muslims are studying and reading it, making that number go up. There are 8 million Muslims in the US alone, and Arabic programs all over the country and internet b/c of it. I'd say the market is under-targeted more than under-sized. 2 conferences a year alone each attract 30,000+ attendees.
Plus, I think, personally that literacy is something that does need to be pushed in the Arab world - for everyone - not just Arabs b/c of how their problems seem to bleed over into our world. Imagine, just like a laptop effort I saw a couple years back, there was an e-reader effort to give impoverished countries access. I know that's on the philanthropic side, but literacy really is an issue. I was shocked when I visited Jordan once and found that most homes don't have any books, magazines, newspapers in them, nothing. Now, that *is* changing for sure, but I still meet a lot of people illiterate, and not surprisingly the majority are women. Educate women, change the world.
I'll get off my soapbox now, but I'm just saying, this needs to move forward. For many reasons, all of them ultimately impact us all.
As for the Craigslist idea, that's interesting. Now, here's the $64 dollar question: if I root my nook, do I know for sure that will solve the problem? everyone says it will, but I have yet to see a screen shot of a voweled text on any device. The 1 rooted nook screen shot I saw wasn't voweled.
Of course, the one reason I prefer to work it out with Pocketbook, by one fashion or other is b/c they have at least tried. Nook and Kindle could care less, and maybe the last ones to make an effort, since they already make enough money. I like to support the one e-reader that has made any effort to work "natively" at all.
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