Microsoft is making a lot of noise about working on one now. It's related to it, in a way. Microsoft certainly sees that as a way to way to read books. M.J. Rose, the author who has done perhaps more than anybody else with the e-book, feels that they won't really be viable until they are not only improved technology, but down to a price of a Walkman, for example. It's very much like what we're seeing in music with the whole Napster controversy.
Books actually are easier to trade around on the Internet.
One Beatles' song is a file which is large enough to encompass, probably, all the books on the New York Times bestseller list. But there isn't a Napster for books, and the reason there isn't a Napster for books, in my opinion, is the PC's a lousy device for reading books. I think the tablet PC may not be that great a device for reading books. We need a dedicated, separate device that has tactile and visual and battery life characteristics, and screen characteristics that would really work, and that, as M.J. Rose says, costs a fairly low price, and at that point it's no problem to move the files around, and I think the thing will, will explode. Yeah, I think he can sleep peacefully for a while, but I do think it's coming.