We don’t normally refute other publication’s gadget news, but when it is overbearingly wrong, sometimes you have to.

Mike Elgan of Computerworld wrote a syndicated piece entitled 7 reasons e-book readers make lousy gifts this year, and he’s wrong on almost every point, but in particular I take issue with:

6. Everyone who really wanted one already has one

It’s well understood that e-book readers pay for themselves with the lower price for books. Anyone who really wants an e-book reader would have bought one by now. By buying one for someone who doesn’t have one, you’re forcing a gift on them that they have already decided they don’t want.

Um … no.

When my family asked me what I wanted for Christmas this year I said “A Barnes & Noble nook”.  While Mr. Elgan points out that the best option this year, the nook, is currently sold out and won’t be delivered until Jan. 4th, this doesn’t matter, and he is extremely wrong in that everyone who wants one has one.  I know several people who want them and just haven’t taken the leap yet because they wanted to make sure the technology was going to continue to be supported.  As someone who has been burned many times by technologies that eventually get dropped, this was partially my case.

By the way, doesn’t the nook being sold out without it even shipping yet kind of tell you that not everyone who wanted a e-reader has one yet?  Even on tonight’s episode of CobWEBs (adult language), my co-host, Steven Hodson of Shooting at Bubbles, discusses his growing interested in an e-reader.

I’m sure Mr. Elgan had the best of intentions with his post, but I also think his article is an example of the typical “it’s the holidays and there is no news, let me write something random that is sure to stir up controversy” school of tech journalism.