The e-reader device game has a relatively short window--look how fast these things proliferate. It's not about the major cash influx (though certainly that is welcome), it's about securing the long tail of unlimited income from ebook sales.
Kindle has knocked just about everyone on the mat with a very simple philosophy--fair prices and easy access. Sure, it could be better. But ePub is NOT the dominant or "universal" format--that's just what tech guys say. If you look at formats, mobi is far and away the dominant choice of readers in the real world. Amazon has made it amazingly easy for any author to enter the market and offer fair prices directly to readers, and already big authors are jumping ship from their publishers, especially with backlist. Amazon is brilliant at targeting choices and encouraging impulse buys. And indie authors (which will be almost ALL authors in five years) can leave their files unprotected if they choose. Amazon doesn't care--it's the big publishers that are forcing locks on the material.
if I had to pick one as an author, I'd certainly go Kindle, as it is more than 90 percent of my sales (and of most indie authors I know).
Kindle has it right and everybody else has at least one major flaw going on. Hard to see anyone rising from the mat on this one.
Scott Nicholson
http://www.hauntedcomputer.com