Advancing technology has its next target: the newspaper.

It’s no secret that the death of the newspaper is imminent.  We have seen how LCD and touchpad screens have replaced paper and ink.  Printing, distribution, and material costs have virtually been eliminated by the recent technological advances.  It’s just a matter of time before we shut down the presses for good.  But the question remains: “What’s next?”

The following devices may be positioned to replace the traditional newspaper in the very near future.  The days of buying printed news is over, here’s a look at the future…

Company: Amazon
Product: Kindle
Classification: eReader

The Kindle has established itself as the first viable eReader on the market.  With internet connectivity, the Kindle may be the perfect form factor for streaming news feeds as well as pre-loaded eBooks.  An interesting “easy on the eyes” screen allows Kindle owners to read content without eye strain; sometimes a result of reading content on traditional LCD computer screens.  Summary: Amazon has gotten a HUGE head start on the competition.  The price point is still pretty high ($299) but will continue to drop with outside competition, advancing technology, and overall market adoption.

Company: Plastic Logic
Product: [unnamed]
Classification: eReader

Plastic Logic has an eReader in the works that appears to be even more portable than the Kindle.  Plastic Logic’s core competency is its use of plastic technology as opposed to traditional silicon, allowing its device to actual bend and flex.  Very few details have been released about Plastic Logic’s eReader, but it has made a significant splash with industry-insiders.

Company: TechCrunch/CrunchPad
Product: CrunchPad
Classification: Internet Tablet

TechCrunch, the tech blog beast, has announced the creation of their “dead simple and dirt cheap touch screen web tablet to surf the web,” otherwise known as the CrunchPad.  Think iPhone meets netbook.  What’s appealing about this device is that it focuses on one thing, and one thing only: the browser.  Web videos play without problem, no conversion to any proprietary format takes place, and everything remains familiar to the user.  Unlike the Kindle for example, publishers will not have to tailor their content or worry about display constraints since the device reads as is a browser.  The one cause for concern about the device in regards to its “newspaper-replacing ability” lies in its LCD screen.  For people looking to read papes and pages of news on their commute to work, LCD may be too much of a “headache.”  Summary: This device looks cool and very practical.  Although not available to the public yet, the CrunchPad team wants to make the device available at a pricetag of $200-300.  No announcement on the expected release date, but something worth keeping an eye on.

Classification: Netbooks

Netbooks are all the rage these days.  Light, portable, cost/battery-efficient laptops designed to get you online as fast and easily as possible.  There’s no doubt that netbooks are only going to rise in popularity, especially as we continue to hear announcements from the likes of Google, making the netbook experience even more accessible.  Summary: While netbooks are extremely practical devices, the major obstacle in its replacement of the newspaper remains the issue with the LCD screen.  I’m still not convinced that a significant amount of news consumption on-the-go is practical on a backlit screen.

Classification: Smartphones

Perhaps the biggest technological breakthough in the past few years has been tied to mobile devices, aka smartphones.  The ability to carry a computer in your pocket has opened up a previously untapped platform.  Phones have gone way beyond calling/texting mechanisms and have stepped firmly into the connected web arena.  Do smartphones have the capability in replacing newspapers?  Catching up on some tweets are great on a phone, but beyond 140-character messages, are they a viable candidate for true news consumption?

Overall consensus

All the devices listed above share two essential “newspaper-killing” commonalities: internet connectivity and portability.  Where the devices differ lies in their screen type and size.

It’s quite obvious that consumers have many options when retrieving their news.  We are at a point where a 140-character tweet may be all we need to read to adequately learn about a particular topic.  Quite simply, news has become dynamic in nature, evolving from the static pages of a newspaper.

As the price of conventional SMS (short message service) continues to rise, it is easy to wonder what the future holds for traditional text messaging. There have been some very interesting analyses done for how much you actual get for your money with regards to a single text.

As more and more people start to carry “smartphones” (web-enabled mobile), traditional SMS messaging will see a complete transformation. Individuals who access web applications and connect to their peers over a common web service simply avoid the need to text altogether. There is a lot of promise in the mobile phone arena, and many are predicting that it is in this arena that we will see a tech boom.

As the “smartphone” market continues to grow, mobile applications like Loopt will simply replace the text message. Services like Loopt, and there are several of them, allow “smartphone” users to connect in a way that regular texts simply cannot replicate.

The bottom line is this: As the population of people with “smartphones” continues to increase, we will see phone companies severely changing their pricing schemes and strategies to accommodate for the shift in technology. It would not surprise me if texting becomes an antiquated pastime in two-to-three years.