"You'll see, in the next 12 to 18 months, a wave of electronic-newspaper devices," says Russell Wilcox, chief executive of E Ink, the MIT spinoff whose technology powers the Kindle, Sony's Reader and other competitors.

Roger Fidler, a former newspaper executive who now researches and consults on e-readers at the University of Missouri, believes tthere are three key requirements for the device to catch on: larger screens, colour screens (a must for advertisers) and lower prices.

Colour will not happen for a few years yet, but several companies will soon launch e-readers with screens the size of an 8.5-by-11-inch piece of paper. Furthermore, the next generation will have flexible, plastic screens that do not crack, unlike the current generation of glass-screened devices.

The industry is gaining confidence in the belief that the price of e-readers can be brought down, as print-newspaper subscriptions can be expensive - one can pay over $1,300 a year to get home delivery of The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal and The Boston Globe.

The biggest concern remains whether consumers who currently read newspaper on the Web for free can be persuaded to pay $10 or more a month for an e-newspaper subscription.

Source: Newsweek via IFRA Executive News Service

See also:

Plastic Logic enters the E-Newspaper market

New version of Kindle to be launched next year "at the earliest"

Sony Reader muscles into Kindle territory