With Amazon having no plans to release the new models outside the US (at least for the moment), except for the cheapest basic model, B&N really needs to get those publisher agreements to sell their e-readers and books outside the US.
Here in Europe all e-books stores use the e-pub format. Except perhaps for Sony there is not a real market leader for e-reader devices. And because of geo-restrictions at the moment the Kindle is the only ereader that makes it easy to buy DRM'ed English ebooks (without having to use workarounds).
I think there is a great opportunity for B&N outside the US at the moment. If they wait until the new Kindle models are available outside the US, than they will miss their last chance to get a significant marketshare outside the US.
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