Is this the year for the e-book takeover?

That's the prediction of Mike Elgin at Computerworld. He lists six reasons why e-books will take over this year: the economy, the environment, changes in publishing, aggressive marketing, a rise in books written especially for electronic delivery, and, finally, the decline in print newspapers.

His prediction as well is that e-books will become fabulously successful because they are going to be marketed on cell phones. He describes the iPhone screen as "huge." He may well be correct on his other points, but the day I try reading books on cell phone screens is the day I quit reading books.

Nevertheless, it's worth following trends in e-books. When someone develops an effective, easily-read, decent sized screen (it doesn't have to be huge; I read paperbacks), I predict e-books will do well.