Printed books may not go the way of the typewriter very soon, but electronic book readers are definitely the hot trend of the day.  Here is a forecast of three technologies for electronic book reading.

Amazon Kindle – The first version sold out immediately last year, and subsequent consumer orders were backfilled months later.  The Kindle 2 is available for pre-order now for $359, and will be shipped out on February 29th.  Amazon reports there are 230,000 electronic books available in Kindle format, all of which can be wirelessly downloaded to the device in under 60 seconds.  As a bonus, most Kindle electronic books, including New York Times best sellers, are available for just $9.99, a fraction of the hard bound or paperback versions.  Amazon’s vision is to “have every book ever printed, in any language, all available in under 60 seconds on Kindle”.  Newspapers, magazines and blogs are also available for download from Amazon’s Kindle store.  To pre-order your Kindle 2 now, just click the image below:

Sony Reader – Not afraid of competition, Amazon also sells the Sony Reader on its site.  The PRS-700BC sells for $399.99, slightly more than the new Kindle 2.  According to most other review sites, the Sony Reader does not have nearly the availability of titles as the Kindle.  The Sony Reader also has no wireless connection, and getting books to the device requires connecting it to a computer for the transfer.  But the Sony Reader can view more file formats than the Amazon Kindle.  The availability of titles (or lack thereof) may be akin to the old VHS and Beta wars or the 80’s.  My vote and my money goes to the Kindle, but if you want the Sony Reader, you can order it from the link below.

Google Mobile Reader – For those with an iPhone or the new Google G1 phone, you can read more than 1.5 million public domain titles for free with the Google Mobile Reader.  There is no application to buy or download.  Just point your mobile browser to http://books.google.com/m to get started.  If you don’t have an iPhone or G1, just use the http://books.google.com link to read the books on your PC or Mac.

Happy Reading…