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If I had to guess why Amazon has a leg up on this it would be because they have been digitizing books for their "Look Inside" feature for a long time. So for them, all they have to do is go get the OK from the publisher (who may or may not have to negotiate with the author depending on when they were published - early contracts may not have included rights to digital versions, for instance) and then they can basically just push a button and get the stuff ready for Kindle. Meanwhile Sony probably has to wait for publishers to provide digital versions, then convert them, then put them on the store...
I think we'll see Sony catch up soon enough. It's really only a matter of time before all the publishers have the digital versions of everything they publish distributed to a wide variety of ebook stores. I don't see exclusive deals being signed by any publishers until there is a reason to do so - it's too early for Penguin for instance to decide that they're only going to sell in Kindle format. And ultimately "choosing sides" in this potential format war is going to be pointless. This isn't like the Blu-Ray vs. HD-DVD battle since there are really no production costs that publishers have to take on. Just like publishers sell to Borders and B&N and Amazon and BooksAMillion, they'll sell the ebook to anyone that wants to sell it (provided it's all DRM'd-up to make them feel safe about piracy).
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