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Why e-readers no longer have any extra features comes down to the way the hardware and software are designed to preform it's primary function--displaying eBooks. They use the slowest, lowest power using CPUs and the minimum amount of system memory (RAM) necessary to keep the cost down. Adding any extra hardware features (MP3/audio-book playback, ability to play games, or a non crappy web browser) would significantly increase hardware cost. Plus e-reader software is designed to put the hardware into an extreme sleep state when there is no user interaction taking place--turning pages, browsing for a book, changing settings, etc. This is how they can get such long battery lives out of a very small battery (again keeping costs down). Adding any extra features that only a very small subset of purchasers would use would raise the cost of the hardware too much.
E-readers also have a very low profit margin, so the major sellers of them are more interested in selling the books for those readers which are where the profits come from.
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