MP3 players arrived on the music scene back in 1997, but it wasn’t until the arrival of the now ubiquitous iPod from Apple that MP3 began to take over from the CD. Likewise, e-books and e-book readers have been under discussion for some time, but in the last 12 months the arrival of new screen technology and attractive devices could do for books what the iPod has done for music.

For the information industry, the question is whether e-books will capture the attention of users in the way the internet has done over the past decade and whether information providers, professionals and departments should be planning to support another new format.

The iRex iLiad on test here uses an electronic paper display. Like the Sony Reader , the iLiad employs a technology developed in the US known as electronic ink. Previous e-book reader attempts by computer companies adopted the same liquid crystal display (LCD) technology used by laptop computers, which were tiring to view for any length of time and couldn’t be read in sunlight.

Electronic paper display technology is the closest that digital has yet got to paper. Electronic ink works by using millions of tiny capsules filled with black and white pigment chips to create words on the page. The display can be refreshed in 250 milliseconds.

Electronics giant Philips is the development partner of Dutch business technology company iRex, which has developed the iLiad. The device enables users to read a variety of electronic document formats, including PDF and plain text.

For the technology-minded, the iLiad is powered by a 400MHz X-Scale processor from chip maker Intel. The same processor is used in handheld devices such as th e BlackBerry as well as the Creative Zen iPod rival. The iLiad can hold up to 30 books and a month’s worth of newspapers in its 128MB of free internal memory.

Sony has already done deals with Random House , Penguin and Harper Collins to ensure there is a wealth of content available for its Reader. iRex sees itself as a business-to-business company and has already done a deal with Bonnefanten College in Maastricht, Holland.

Digital reading

Electronic paper display undoubtedly works. Your eyes don’t get tired from reading the screen as they do with a computer, and the iLiad is perfectly comfortable to use outside and indoors under a variety of lighting.

A silver bar on the right-hand running nearly the entire length of the device is a rocker switch that turns the page onscreen. I quickly became comfortable with using it. A set of onscreen icons below the content will change the text size or lock the page. When you power down the device, it automatically bookmarks where you left your document, title or story, and return you there at the subsequent boot-up.

Powering up the iLiad is such a slow process that you almost need to switch it on in anticipation of accessing an information source – the immediacy of print and the snatched few paragraphs or a quick revision of basic facts are all lost in the digital world. Even so, anyone who uses this device for pleasure rather than work will quickly become immersed in the story rather than the technology.

You navigate from books to news or documents via a line of four buttons below the screen, and there is an up-one-level button above the page turning rocker. There is also a stylus for writing and navigating. These features give the iLiad the feel of being a business tool rather than just another flashy gadget.

Information users coping with a lot of documentation can create notes on top of documents stored on the device and generate separate note document files. Like all electronic writing devices, the iLiad turns your calligraphy into a chicken’s scratch and users will have to adapt. The advantage, of course, is that your notes, work documents and even a tome to read on the 6.24 home are all neatly bundled into a handy device that weighs little more than a pocket calculator.

You will have to adapt your reading habits, though: if your finger hovers too long on the rocker you leap forward several pages, and I found myself continually checking the page number to make sure I hadn’t moved on too far.

The tested device came with a stack of content from Project Gutenberg, the oldest digital library, which features out-of-copyright texts. Finding your way to the beginning of the title is laborious as you have to skip through pages of details about Gutenberg. Some form of marker or contents page that told you where the story began would help.

Business class

Unlike Sony, iRex sees the future of e-book readers as a business tool that throws in the pleasure of a good book. All the required business connectivity is built in, including USB and Flash memory ports, and wireless internet is on the way. It is also possible to connect the iLiad directly to a printer.

For information-heavy professionals such as engineers, lawyers, doctors and academics, the iLiad has an obvious place. Storing a large number of titles on an easy-to-carry device could revolutionise usage, and therefore sales of academic and technical titles.

Electronic paper display is undoubtedly a big step forward for e-book readers, but will it let the e-book replace books or move users away from accessing websites from a wireless-enabled laptop computer?

Technology often takes off in the consumer space first before moving into the professional sphere, but e-book readers seem to have more to offer the professional world. And at £433, the iLiad faces stiff competition from paper-based forms.

For those concerned with next-generation users, this device could herald as big a change as the internet did. The next generation of readers place little value on tactile objects – just like modern music consumers have no interest in record and CD sleeves. They just want the content, and whether it comes from a blog or MySpace site matters little. MP3 music adoption has already reached this stage; e-book readers like the iLiad could do the same for the written word.