[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by WilliamG

At the risk of sounding like the bearer of doom, I make this thread.

Bear in mind, first, that I love my Reader, and my wife loves hers.

That said, with the even greater rumblings of a near-release Amazon reader, and the complete lack of a user-base for the current PRS-500, does anyone think the reader (Sony's) is going away?

We are yet unsure of the Kindle's functionality. It's possible that the Kindle may only be able to download and read books purchased via Amazon's website. That would limit it's functionality in a lot of people's eyes (mine included). There are a lot of Sony Reader users. Tiger Direct sells out, Sony sells out.. etc. Plus a lot did sell via the credit card offer (get me my card now). My mother-in-law will have one once I manage to get one via the credit card offer. So yes, the reader exists in the real world.

I truly feel like my wife and I are the only people in the world who own a Reader. I've never, ever, ever met anyone else (and I travel a lot by plane) who owns one.

It could be that where you live and the places you go, you just don't see anyone else with one. I too am one that doesn't see others reading on a Sony Reader. But then again, I don't see iLiads, Cybooks (any model), jinke (any modle), or any other dedicated reading devices. Going by your logic, all dedicated readers are on the way out. Just because I don't see others on public transport reading one is no indication. I see a lot of people reading the free papers handed out at the train stations. Maybe they prefer to read them and their readers are sitting in their bags.

The Reader software is pretty crappy. We have all these buttons and Sony refuse to support the darn thing! Hello Sony! I'd like my 1 through 0 buttons to do more than select my book and send me various percentages of the way through my books! How about *gasp* being able to press 264 to get to page 264!?

I don't think the reader's software is crappy. The hacks do make it better, but as it was, it worked fine to read my books.

Add to this the absolutely atrocious Connect store that Sony seem almost adamant on not doing anything about. Combines these thing, and it feels like the Reader is just dying a really, really slow death.

Have you recently been to the Connect Store? I think it's come a long way since it started. It actually has features that it was sorely lacking. And now I am seeing new releases that even some of the other ebook shops don't have. And the prices are LOWER then MobiPocket's.

Then again, there's this rumored PRS-505, so who really knows?

If I was planning on buying a new reader at full price, I would wait for the 505 and get one of those.

I just feel it. I feel the Reader disappearing into oblivion, despite liking the darn thing so much.

Given your logic here, ALL READERS are "disappearing into oblivion". So why would Jinke come out with the V3, Cybook with the Gen3, iLiad with V2.0 and Sony with the PRS505, Amazon with the Kindle? Makes no sence to support dedicated ebook readers when they are all not going to be around for very long. And I don't think Borders would partner up with Sony if they thought it was all going away. Obviously sales have been strong enough that Borders now wants to get into the ebook side and not just the hardware side. Amazon feels it's strong enough since they purchased MobiPocket and have the Kindle coming out. And the others are along for the ride since they see ebooks as a good thing too. I'm sorry you feel reading ebooks is going to go away just because you don't see anyone else doing it.