Jon have you ever owned or at least read a whole book on a Kindle? Going by what others say is not a good idea AFAIC. You need to experience a Kindle or whatever reader first hand. I've got both Kindles and Sonys. I definitely agree that ePub is a much better format than MOBI, much more robust, etc. But does that matter when reading books that are mostly just text, like a novel. No, not in my experience. I really cannot see any difference that is apparent. Sure ePubs do better at displaying images and certainly have much greater CSS support, but for the typical books most people read on readers I think this makes little or no difference.

Amazon has done an excellent job of marketing, while Sony acts like they are embarrassed to admit they make readers. Amazon has created a good bookstore, while Sony continues to piddle on itself. Amazon makes frequent firmware updates to their Kindles, while Sony rarely does. About the only place where Sony outperforms Amazon is the quality build of their readers. But I have to say that as much as I love my 350, for a lot less money I bought a Kindle WiFi that is well built and has much more functionality. And Sony has yet to address the large screen reader requests. The 900 and 950 or not an answer to large screens.

I think for the average reader the Kindle is in their face and sexy, while the Sony Readers are hidden on a backshelf someplace collecting dust. And that is Sony's fault.