I was very happy with my Sony 505 and have been happy with 900. That device though is still the old e-ink screen and it has started to lose contrast. That and the battery life has declined. So I was in the market for a device with an improved screen that could be read in low light, like the Kindle Paperwhite. Given my good experience with Sony devices my first thought was to if a comparable device was available, and that is when I discovered that they seem to have abandoned the US market.

The thing is both Amazon and Barnes & Noble came into the ebook reader business from the business of selling books. Sony entered from the electronics business and compared to their overall electronics business ebook readers were never going to be but a minor part of that. So at least Amazon can sell readers at a low cost and make it up from selling ebooks, especially with the Amazon readers being tied the Amazon format. Sony was never a good source for ebooks.