This thread has just reinforced to me the importance of seeking opinions outside my own worldview.
I'm actually quite astonished to hear someone here say that ePub is going to die and mobi is going to be the new standard. I have a Nook and a PocketBook 360 and I will ONLY buy books in ePub format. I buy almost all my books from B&N, and I've yet to find a title that was only available on Amazon Kindle and not on B&N. (Indeed, I recently found a title that was only available on B&N and not as a Kindle book!)
I'm a supporter of Amazon in general (I should be - I'm a dedicated reviewer on their site), but I am 100% all about ePubs over mobi. I've bought over 200 books on B&N alone and I have over 700 books in Calibre library.
So if ePub fails and mobi wins, it won't be because I wasn't spending enough on ePubs.
I honestly don't know who is going to win the format war. I *do* see it as fragmentation, regardless. Different formats are not competition - different PRICES are competition. If Amazon was offering the same ePubs as B&N at different prices, that would be competition to me. A different format that tries to lock you into a certain device? That's fragmentation.
And yes I know that Amazon Kindle users aren't locked into their devices anymore, but that's because of awesome wonderful sexy conversion programs like Calibre. NOT because Amazon politely offered free epub-to-mobi conversion service on their website so that people wouldn't have to buy their books all over again when/if they switched to a Kindle device. THAT would be competition, too. As it currently stands, though, it's not.
Well, that's my opinion anyway.
Anyway, since the "back on topic" flag has been raised: no, I would never get a Kindle. Beyond anything else, I don't like the physical keyboard and I see it as a major waste of space.
