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My prediction: e-ink (or other) displays will keep getting better and cheaper. The e-reading 'experience' will be more and more paper-like. The ease and experience of online buying and downloading will continue to increase. The concept of a "digital book" (still in infancy, if that) will evolve. And some folks will be scared of change and think that it will ruin things or sweep all of the good stuff away in a flood. This is understandable. Gimme that ol' time religion. It was good enough for grandpa.
Why try to change something that is after all, perfect? If it ain't broke, don't fix it. And we'll all tussle and opine (I'm right there, too) back and forth.
A new generation will grow up who are not so wedded to the idea that books = paper-based and that format = content (we always told them 'don't judge a book by its cover', didn't we?). They will become the entrepreneurs, the "librarians" (if such still exist) and scholars of their day. Look, sometimes the most earth-shaking revolutions are almost imperceptible. Someday, some kid (probably not born yet) will look at a book and call it a book and think of it as a book ... and it will be digital.
But it will really just be a book. That's what books are, silly rabbit.
In the meantime, all of this discourse is great fun of course, but as the tired old saying goes: "In the battle between the rock and river, the river always wins. "
And there you are.
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