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Originally Posted by nogle
Except Kobo is now owned by Ratuken, a large Japanese company.
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For that matter, B&N's tablet business just enjoyed a huge investment (and a subtle rebranding) from Microsoft. Things are going to be interesting for a while.
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For Amazon to compete with loss leaders will likely now only cause wholesale reduction in profitabliity of eBooks and the destruction of several competitors, possibly including themselves.
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Publishers will blink on wholesale before letting all the ebook retailers go out of business, just like the music business did when it discovered it could no longer sell CDs for $16.99. Also like the music business, the publishers want more than one 600-lb. gorilla to negotiate with, so that terms are not dictated by said gorilla. And last resort, a DRM-laden bookstore represents huge support costs which are now being shouldered entirely by e-book retailers and not publishers. Publishers aren't gonna hang their own shingle out on the Internet while DRM lives and breathes.
(Just my $.02)