Let's agree it is still not completely pleasant to buy and read ebooks. My suggestion for what's missing: monks.

To compare: Among the pleasures of reading a physical book are the experience of browsing shelves in a store, a library, or your house; flipping open a book at any point to look at it for as long as you like before committing; being able to pay for or check out the book in a few simple ways; and reading a well-laid-out page that is free of typos.

In the ebook market, no one seems to be working on these problems (maybe because of the distraction of building hardware, making markets, price-fixing). Because who works on the day-to-day usability of a book? The monks who work in bookstores and libraries and obsessively shelve, neaten and re-order; the monks who edit, proofread and typeset physical books and magazines. In new media, where I work, the monk class has not yet arisen, and when individual examples of the type arise, no one really knows what to do with them. There's no room in fast-moving, fast-changing new media for monks who do one small, audience-facing thing well, over and over.

Sub-thesis: Trying to buy an e-audiobook is so much worse I can't even start. Sorry, Mom & Dad, for our failed attempt yesterday to acquire you a Jo Nesbø audio mystery for your 8-hour drive.