Will Kindle start a fire?

It was announced in Newsweek last week (Nov. 26. '07) that Jeff Bezos and Amazon are about to release a new digital reader called the Kindle. At about 5x7 inches, it's similar in size to a paperback book. Bezos says the reader was designed to project the aura of "bookishness" and won't carry a lot of fancy gizmos. With strong financial backing and the support of publishers, 88,000 titles are currently available.
I guess the big question is, will it catch on? There have been Readers in the past, but their acceptance was very limited. It seems the problem is to create a product that has a strong relationship to the thing it's replacing, but also unique enough to make people feel the additional features are a reason to give up their old product.
This seems to apply to this new reader. If it can't deliver the ability to engage readers to the point of forgetting their surroundings like a book can do AND provide some convenience features, then it will probably fail. According to the author's account, he found reading the Kindle was as easy and enjoyable as reading a physical book. He also liked how easy it was to order a book online from Amazon using a cell phone's wireless signal. When it came putting newspaper content on the Kindle the interface was a bit more cumbersome, but getting the New York Times online for $13.99 instead of $50+ was a great benefit.
At $399, the author acknowledges the price is a bit steep, but compares it to the ipod and it's history of use and acceptance. As time goes on, he believes the features will increase and the price will go down as well.
So, will this technology get more people reading? It certainly seems to make reading more convenient and titles more accessible. It also can allow a reader to compare an article of say an event to newspaper clippings from that period thus allowing for divergent takes on history. This type of accessibility might even mean more learning could take place because it could be done in a much shorter time frame. Maybe that debate about media and its effects on learning could be settled once and for all by the Kindle.