The Sony's closer to the ergonomic style I like, but the screen is still too small. I'm a block text at a glance reader, which admittedly is a tiny market, but I also read a lot of journal articles -- graphs, illustrations, formulas, tables -- which is a rather larger one.

I don't know what market research says about e-reader appeal, but people do read quite a bit of material in magazine sized format. I have a fair number of mass market paperbacks, but I don't actually like that size. The Vintage trade paperback size is pretty close to ideal for me. If I were a hardware guy, and eInk came in screen sizes greater than 10 inches diagonal, I'd homebrew something with a notebook sized screen and Adobe Reader style buttons.