Kindle gets lending

[canuck32]

http://www.amazon.com/tag/kindle/for...ype=tagsDetail

The Amazon Kindle team says:
(AMAZON OFFICIAL)
We wanted to let you know about two new features coming soon.

First, we are making Kindle newspapers and magazines readable on our free Kindle apps, so you can always read Kindle periodicals even if you don't have your Kindle with you or don't yet own a Kindle. In the coming weeks, many newspapers and magazines will be available on our Kindle apps for iPad, iPhone and iPod touch, and then we'll be adding this functionality to Kindle for Android and our other apps down the road. Our vision is Buy Once, Read Everywhere, and we're excited to make this possible for Kindle periodicals in the same way that it works now for Kindle books. More details when we launch this in the coming weeks.

Second, later this year, we will be introducing lending for Kindle, a new feature that lets you loan your Kindle books to other Kindle device or Kindle app users. Each book can be lent once for a loan period of 14-days and the lender cannot read the book during the loan period. Additionally, not all e-books will be lendable - this is solely up to the publisher or rights holder, who determines which titles are enabled for lending.

We will post to the forum later this year when these features are available.

[Waddafocky]

I wonder what happens when Kindle's only retail for 2x-4x more than a hardcover book. What does that do to public libraries, paper books and the like?

Or will people still be waiting for nice e-ink + tactile paperlike screens?