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I am Amazon fan as well. I buy pbooks on Amazon only for many years.
I also buy other things on amazon.co.uk/com.
However, if tomorrow Amazon.co.uk would make Kindle available in the UK, I will buy Sony Reader PRS-505 in the USA.
The only thing that I would like to have and Kindle has it while Sony doesn't have is built-in dictionary. Before I bought Sony Reader almost 1 year ago, when I was reading pbooks and I didn't know a word I used Israeli made dictionary pen scanner. You just pass it over a word and it translates it immediately. After I bought Sony Reader I had to buy a small electronic dictionary because I hate browsing manually through a huge oxford English-Russian dictionary while reading in my bed.
Otherwise, Kindle has nothing that atracts me. Nothing at all. Moreover, it has too many features that I find distracting/unwanted to me.
1. I don't need an Internet access on my eBook reader. eBook reader is for reading books, not browsing the Internet. I have more than enough access to the Internet at home and at work and browsing the Internet on powerful PCs with big screens is much more atractive idea to me. All the news I can read online or listen on the radio (that is what I do, I was never a newspaper fan).
2. As someone on the-ebook.org forum said: you are spedning 10 minutes on purchasing a book than 10hs/10days on reading it. So, the preferences when designing eBook reader should be applied accordingly. When I see Kindle, I see a gadget that is nice to use if you want to read eBook but not a real eBook reader such as Sony Reader, CyBook Gen3 or iRex iLiad are.
For example: a) I need keyboard only for 10 minutes to purchase a book, I don't need it in my hands, in front of my eyes for the rest of 10hs/10 days.
b) Battery life of Sony Reader is far superior to Kindle even with wireless switched off. It is important to me.
3. Sony reader has much more attractive hardware design than Kindle. It is a dedicated eBook reader in a way I see it. Nothing unnecessary, only the most needed buttons.
4. Kindle is bulkie than Sony.
5. Reading with Verilux lamp clipped to Sony's stock cover is more convenient than doing the same with Kindle. It is impossible to do without Kindle's cover at all and kindle's cover make it double size of Sony and AFAIK is not well designed accordingly to opinion of many of Kindle's owners.
6. I like boomarks in Sony Reader. I like how TOC is created and working in LRF.
7. I like navigation between text of a book/toc/bookmarks/menu in Sony.
8. I do like how Sony Reader looks like. IMHO it is a perfect design for a dedicated book reader. The gadget itself is not much bigger than the screen, there are no unnecessary buttons etc.
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