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I think one of the reasons it has been so difficult for the industry to provide a hardware reader that satisfied the public, is that no one has defined the software needs of the reader... that is, what is it gonna read? If we let the reader determine what we read on it, we're putting the cart before the horse. We should develop the content first, so the readers can be created for those criteria.
And in terms of that criteria: I think the digital realm's ability to present text, video, audio, interactive content, and links to related material, suggests that the digital book of the future will most closely resemble a web site. Textbooks, news periodicals and reference material will most closely resemble sites like Discovery.com, C|Net or CNN, with searchable sections, cross-linking, encapsulated video and audio segments, and interactive animations.
All that capability for e-books will likely help to evolve the non-textbook e-book to more closely resemble entertainment magazines, with colorful graphics and additional multimedia content that add value to the text content. (They will probably include animated ads as well, but we'll deal with that little annoyance later.)
And finally, there may be some further interaction in terms of being able to influence the material, ala Wikipedia, such as participating in live discussions, voting in polls, or providing data that might update published data, making the e-books even more timely.
How's that for an e-book laundry list?
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