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There comes a point where technology doesn't need to advance - things are good enough as they are. How about the technology of printed books? The last time that changed was well before my birth ... I certainly don't remember it ever changing during my lifetime.
When technology doesn't need to advance further, often times you will see prices start to decrease (and that's an advancement in and of itself). So to support prices, manufactures will come up with newer technology that is often times useless, and serves more as a marketing tool. e.g., There may be a some users that absolutely have to have a waterproof eBook reader, but I'm betting that 99% of the users out there don't need that and aren't willing to pay extra to get it. We now have smartphones where the screen is so large you can't fit the thing in your pocket, but by golly, the screen is rounded at the edges. Really quite useless when you think about it, but how else are they going to justify continuing to charge you $1000 for a telephone? Oh yeah, wait, they did give us little talking piles of crap emoticons - that was certainly a necessary technology advancement. Makes me want to run right out there and plop down another grand to get it.
IMHO, eReaders have already matured to an end state of maximum functionality and utility. Innovations from now forward will be mostly fluff, meant to prop up prices.
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