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With such a prominent division between those who want all-in-one UMPC-like capabilities and those who want just a clean reader-only unit, I wonder if there isn't room on the low end for a USB-connected eInk display. If you put all the burden of rendering on the host with a printer-like driver, the eInk display unit would just need minimal storage, a forward/back button, and a screen. You might even be able to power it over USB, though that might be putting too much burden on the host.
I'm not sure you could get the cost far enough below the Sony to make it viable. If you could, though, you could carry that and a laptop, or that and a UMPC. Then there's no need to try to engineer a full-blown eInk-based tablet/UMPC/PDA.
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