The portable mp3 player has revolutionized the way that people access music. People can easily carry all of their digital music files around with them in a small light-weight device. Many would argue that the popularity of such devices has had a profound effect on the revitalization of the company Apple [1]. In a sense, e-readers are analogous to mp3 players with respect to reading books.

Central Question: Why has the adoption of e-readers into the consumer market made so little an impact compared to mp3 players?

Inherent in the discussion of e-readers are what the environmental implications will be. A device that contains the equivalent of 100 books or more would certainly save paper, but also would also use some materials with environmental impacts that are not as obvious. A lifecycle assessment of both books and e-readers is one technique that will be used to study the potential environmental impact of e-readers. In addition, questions such as how to dispose of e-readers properly and how often to do so will be addressed.

A defining characteristic that may hinder the success of e-readers is whether or not would consider them useful. One important question is whether the consumer market would actually want to carry all of their books around with them. Also, I would investigate issues involved with actually reading off of the device. Questions about being able to read it outside or quickly flip between pages are expected to be especially significant.

Another area that I expect influences the successful adoption of e-readers would be the cost to the customer. I will investigate how readily available e-readers are at the present time and how many different companies are manufacturing them. In addition I will look at the most recent trends that predict how the cost and availability of e-readers will change in years to come.

Another factor that might influence the success of e-readers is the revenue that they could produce. This will likely effect the authors who choose to distribute electronic versions of their books as well as the publishers who make them. This is an aspect that might parallels a major issue in music which involves piracy or illegal duplication of books. A comparison of this issue in books and music will be made.