BEFORE there were tablets, there were ebook readers. I remembered the first two tablets I bought years ago was from Amazon. It was black and white, a Kindle reader and it used a special ink so that when you turn off the unit, the ink would not disappear. This made the battery last for days, because once it shows you the book, it would just retain it while cutting power. Ultimately, all the other booksellers joined in to make their own ebook readers and almost all of them eventually graduated to making tablet computers, many of them powered by Android.

However, the market for ebook readers I guess is dying, since if you buy a tablet, it does not cost much else, plus there are now so many games and other things you can do like check email, surf the net, go to Facebook, take photos, listen to music, do photo editing, etc. other than reading ebooks. Moreover, tablets are now able to last for hours and generally can be as small as dedicated ebook readers.

According to market research company His iSuppli, the rapid rise of tablets is driving the ebook reader sales down. It estimated that ebook readers sales fell 36 percent in 2012 and will fall again by another 27 percent this year.

However, the fight for the tablet market, while growing rapidly, is also very bruising and bookseller Barnes and Noble will actually stop selling its Nook tablets but will continue with its ebook readers. This is an interesting case: Why do you want to withdraw from a market that is growing and instead choose to go after a market that is shrinking?

I think it is simple: Barnes and Noble makes money by selling ebooks and it found out that while it does not make money selling both the tablet and the ebook reader, most people buy tablets to play and use it for other applications, while those that buy the ebook reader ( especially the black and white model) actually buy ebooks from them, which gives them some amount of profit.

Nevertheless, Microsoft this week also unveiled a new improvement in its tablets called Windows 8.1. For one, they decided to put back the START button. But their refrain is the same – do people really need both a computer and a tablet or do you really just need one? This is what Microsoft or Intel are both pitching, you need a hybrid or an ultrabook.

According to Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer, how many times did it happen to you when you brought a tablet and you found out that you have to write a long email or you have to take notes on the meeting? Do you use pen and paper instead? Or you need to change some numbers on the spreadsheet? We make your choice easier – according to Microsoft.

We will sell you something that is both a powerful computer and a powerful and capable tablet. Does that message resonate with you?

(www.twitter.com/wilsonng)