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Many LCD displays are quite readable in full sunlight. The color ones rely on backlighting because of the filters used to set the color for each pixel. Touch screens sometimes impair reflectivity, but not by that much. I still use my Palm IIIxe and it's perfectly readable without the backlight in normal room lighting or in sunlight. In fact, I very rarely use the backlight.
LCD displays do use more power than e-ink, but I'd be willing to bet a backlight uses even more. The issue I consider at least as important when comparing LCD to e ink is the pixel size. For reading books consisting primarily of text, LCD works fine. For books or other documents with extensive diagrams, significant changes in fonts and symbols (e.g. mathematics texts), or a need to support a wide variety of languages, the finer granularity of the e ink display becomes critical.
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