I so agree with Pournelle...I will admit I was weened on his original columns in Byte during my formative years as a developer and eventually a networking design/rescue guy. He has always had a unique almost intuitive ability to predict trends. SO my takes on his opinions might be a bit too willing to read between the lines in what he writes some days.
He has never been one to be a bandwagon sort...plus he has had millions of copies of his books sell. He has a, well, seasoned perspective on the industry from both the tech side as well as the evil underhanded world in which publishers dwell.
That said...he is right...he is looking at critical mass of devices has to make reading anywhere and any time a reality. Perhaps this is one reason reading has fallen out of favor anymore people do not want to carry books with the truckload of other crap we all carry around everyday.
Of course most of those folks who simply do not read books prolly voted for the Shrubbery the past two elections too. But I digress...
I posted the other day it's CONTENT portability will ultimately drive eBooks to become ubiquitous. So it is the availability of content that needs to rise up to meet the need of consumers with a wide variety of devices. I love the Kindle and I love the Sony 505, I think the Cybook Gen3 is right up there with them...and then the iLiad is in a field of it's own. But there is one simple thing lacking...publishers and content providers want to restrict people the a proprietary device. The device needs to simply be a tool...there are 1000's of different hammers a carpenter can choose from but they all can drive a nail, some just do certain aspects better then others. People need to be allowed to chose the device they want not the one they are told they will use.
eBooks must work on Palm OS systems, Kindle's, Sony's, Cybook, iLiad's, iPhones, iTouch...you get the idea...I think Pournelle's point is exactly that, no single device can dominate but rather the publishing industry needs to pull their collective heads out and work with the various reader software companies to make their newer copyrighted content available for every device you can think of....
You can always find Jerry's musings and ramblings on his website...
http://www.jerrypournelle.com
He has several recent comments on ebooks and the industry. And an interesting battle with one "darknet" site. Pournelle's site is, well, messy, as I suspect his desk is too...hehehehe...but he is still as sharp as ever...or maybe I am somewhat more dim witted then I once was...I prefer to think it's the former over the latter.