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There seems to be a lot of hope placed upon cell phones to function as ebook readers, but the idea of reading more than a few sentences or scant paragraphs seems torturous when considering the typical flip phone. Sure, I can somewhat more comfortably access & digest larger amounts of text on my iPhone, but is that really representative of the kinds of phones that are or could be in place in the locales this centers around? I suspect not. And my iPhone is all but worthless without a PC to tether it to and perform (at least initially) setup steps from.

And we are talking about children here - about half the times my Kindergarten-age son carries his own lunch to the table, his sandwiches end up on the floor. Am I going to trust that he can carry a $400 smartphone around without dropping and breaking it? And what's the impact on his schoolwork if that vital smartphone does get dropped and he's left without a device for some period of time?

I'm not being a naysayer, just trying to think this through...