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The reason that ebooks are not selling well has been noted here: there is nothing wrong with the medium of books as they exist today. So what Sony et. al. must do is convince readers that their devices (at $300+) represent an improvement. I have been part of a book club of 12-13 men for the past three years: we meet once a month for 10 months of the year. That's 30 books (only 6 of which were available as ebooks) and up to last month, I was the only one who read ebooks (first on my Palm T3/TX, now on my MotorolaQ). One member got a Sony reader from his wife but then had to call me to learn how to download and install a book (another problem with ebooks).
I found it convenient to have a book with me all the time, but I could have carried a paperback too (the Sony ads now appearing in magazines keep telling the reader that he/she can now carry 80 books at a time, which is just idiotic, since no one, not even students, needs to, so no wonder this thing does not resonate with a bang).
My thinking goes something like this: when we are on the verge of running out of oil we'll find a synthetic, and when we are on the verge of running out of paper we'll all read ebooks. They're just not a necessity now.
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