I've looked enviously at the Sony myself, carpetmojo.
My iRiver Story is only a year old, but already I think it's growing frail (with an ever-shortening battery life, and reasonably frequently locking up on booting. After only a year? How does that happen with solid-state electronics?! I definitely haven't amortised the hefty purchase cost with the amount of reading I've done.) Of what's on the market at the moment, when my Story dies I'll probably look to Sony.
But - here in Australia, at least - the Sony readers are out of stock even at Sony, and it's apparently responded to enquiries that it won't have any more until at least September. Production rates have been heavily damaged by the awful situation in northern Japan, and Australia isn't exactly high in Sony's global priorities.