THEY have fought over DVDs, digital cameras, MP3 players and flat-screen televisions. Now Japan’s gadget makers have chosen a new battleground for 2005: the electronic book.

Technology companies and science-fiction writers have been predicting the death of paper for decades, and they have always been wrong.

Until now, people have happily stuck to books despite the digital age because books still represent the cheapest and easiest-to-read medium for words. The idea of a paperless office is widely scoffed at and entirely cashless financial systems remain elusive.

But Sony and Matsushita, the two largest consumer electronic companies, believe they may have turned the corner in driving the humble book to extinction.

The two rival firms have released their latest versions of the electronic book. They have come up with a handheld gizmo that reads, if you are prepared to part with £200, like a book.

The technology that has eluded the world was the electronic “paper” on which the words appear. The idea of reading from a handheld device is not new, but the screens have always let the concept down.

There is already a healthy market for written material that can be downloaded on to a handheld computer or a mobile phone, but even the most die-hard geek will admit that back-lit liquid crystal screens are a strain on the eye, and the battery power needed to read an entire book is vast.

The Japanese gadget-makers have come at the problem from a new angle: by temporarily “printing” words on a surface rather than projecting them on to a screen. Sony’s Librie is the first device to use a material called Electronic Ink — a technology based on microscopic capsules which turn from black to white with a tiny voltage.

Once each new page has “turned”, the image requires no additional power to keep it on the screen. This means that the device will let the reader view 10,000 pages with four AAA batteries and can store 20 books in its memory. Matsushita’s Sigma Book uses a liquid-crystal display that reflects outside light and has a memory of its own. Like the Sony, it requires energy only when the page is being turned.

Explore World News

• World Agenda

• Iraq News

• US & Americas News

• Europe News

• Middle East News

• Asia News

• Africa News

• Ireland News

Times Recommends

• ‘Thousands of Tamils dying’ in Sri Lanka camp
• Jackson 'rebuilt his nose before he died'
• Tehran: militiamen attack protesters