Microsoft may be playing catch up to Google in the search business, but it has no plans to follow Amazon.com with an electronic book reader. Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer scoffed at the idea, telling Reuters, "We have a device for reading. It's the most popular device in the world. It's the PC."

Ballmer, speaking during a trip to the Netherlands, said Microsoft may work with companies developing electronic books, but didn't seem all that excited about it:

"I would love to see companies like Amazon and others bring their books to the PC," Ballmer said. "Hopefully we can get that to happen with Barnes & Noble or Amazon or somebody," Ballmer said.

"But no, we are not interested in e-readers ourselves."

Barnes & Noble is reportedly developing its own branded electronic reading device that will have the same e-ink technology as Amazon's Kindle and have wireless capability via AT&T.

Amazon, meantime, is taking its Kindle international. And there are a ton of other e-readers hitting the market, amid expectations that the devices will be a hot seller this holiday season.

Microsoft hasn't completely ignored the growing electronic book market. The software giant recently teamed with O'Reilly Media on e-book initiatives and released a small update for its Microsoft Reader software for Windows Mobile.

It's too bad, though, that Microsoft isn't planning to build an electronic reader. Given the interesting name choice of Bing for its new search engine, I was looking forward to seeing what kind of moniker Microsoft would come up with for a reading device. Any ideas?

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