"The [book] prices depend on publishers."
Actually, that isn't true in Amazon's case. It's been widely reported that Amazon is selling those $9.99 bestsellers at a loss--well below the prices their publishers have set. In fact, one spokesperson for a major publishing house, after staunchly declaring in an interview that his company would never reduce prices for ebooks, was visibly shocked when the interviewer informed him that Amazon was already offering his company's bestselling hardcovers on Kindle for $9.99. He had no idea!
It's clear that Amazon, having decided that they can't wait for the hidebound publishing industry to wake up to reality, are taking a loss on these books in order to prime the pump and get Kindle (and the whole ebook concept) off the ground. It's a risk, but they have the deep pockets to do this for as long as it takes; Sony doesn't.
And Amazon is 100% committed to this venture, risk or no. Jeff Bezos says: "This is the most important thing we've ever done." That's not just hype. I'm convinced he's right.
As for Sony, they obviously can't compete as a bookseller. Frankly, I don't believe Borders can either, although a Sony-Borders alliance is a fairly obvious countermove against Kindle. My guess is that they're about as likely to beat Kindle/Amazon as Microsoft's Zune is to beat the iPod/iTunes Store combination.
In the long run, I think Sony's best bet is to stick to their knitting--meaning selling sleekly designed hardware--by licensing the Kindle platform. I think once Kindle gets going, Amazon will be only too happy to offer licenses to other hardware makers. After all, they are in the content business... so the more readers out there, the better, as long as they all tie into Amazon for purchases.
Andy Baird
http://www.andybaird.com/travels/