One word: MiniDisc.

Not to mention all the excitable rumours about the iSlate or iPad or whatever they're going to call it. If the sainted Apple thinks there's money to be made in the space with a super e-reader, I wouldn't want to bet they'll be wrong.

As one word rebuttals go, I'd have to admit that's an excellent one, Katharine. I tend to think the media industry scuppered minidiscs, though. They've never really liked recordable formats and prefer DVDs to VHS, and CDs to cassettes, DAT or minidiscs. But maybe their cold feet will also hobble e-readers.

Will there now be a growing mountain of obsolete e-readers? I hope the device that comes out on top will also have other uses.

You have a point about deliberate scuttling, Rob. I just believe that whether a new technology altering the way we consume media catches on or not is more or less arbitrary. CDs caught on, and evolved into CD-Rs, but MiniDiscs didn't; VHS caught on but BETA didn't. The internet caught on (i.e. replacing newspapers and Newsweek), but e-readers may not.

There aren't exact comparisons with the mp3-player market (no device dominated so early on as the Kindle has done), but it feels like we're still in very early days. Give it a few years and perhaps the mass market will jump on board when an iPod equivalent arrives. And pity all the slightly dodgy tech gubbins that fills our landfills in the meantime.

That's assuming plastic remains cheap enough to make throwaway gadgets. Peak oil, anyone? ;-)

'And pity all the slightly dodgy tech gubbins that fills our landfills in the meantime.'

George, I think about this ALL THE TIME. All that lost tech, from giant satellite dishes to Super-8 cameras. Like a graveyard of our devotion to The New.