Will The Kindle Replace The Book?

Back in November of 2007, Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos asked an audience at the W Hotel in New Yorks Union Square, "Why are book the last bastion of analog?". Afterwhich he presented to the audience, the Kindle. Amazon's first electronic book reader.

Although it was not the first electronic book, it was the first one that had the backing of the large company, Amazon, selling electronic copies for it. It also quickly gained famed because it was seen being held in the hands of the like of the mighty Oprah.

On February 24, 2009, Amazon released the second generation of the electronic book reader, simply called, the Kindle 2.



The Kindle 2 has had several upgrades from the original Kindle:
* The Kindle 2 is thinner than the original, an amazing .36 of an inch.
* The display shows 16 shades of gray (still not color).
* The page flips 20% faster than the Kindle, one of the largest complaints.
* The Kindle 2 has up to a 25% longer battery life.
* 1.4 Gigs of memory versus 180 megs of the original.
* Text to speech can read a book aloud to you or use audio book files.
* Wireless access to Wikipedia.
* Over 230,000 titles to choose from at Amazon, most at $9.99.
* Newspaper and magazine subscriptions, some at $9.99 a month.
* Read 27,000 free books from the Gutenberg Project (after conversion).
* Download titles on the go, through Sprints wireless service, included in the Kindle price.

At this point, it is said that over 250,000 Kindles have been sold. Not too bad, but sort of answers the overall question, will the kindle replace the book?