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I think (bear with me here!) that too many companies look at the ink-jet printer market and its ink cartridges and think longingly of the huge potential for tied-in revenue streams. And desparately want to setup their own equivalent. That is: sell devices with expensive consumables that you go back to them to buy.
Along came Apple and did that with music (okay; you can argue that the banks and music companies made sure the profitability of this was probably not the same as printer ink). And companies are now trying to do this with lots of other electronic-form media: sell a device tied to a delivery stream -- theirs. And Apple's success with the iPod had convinced them that they can make it work.
And sadly the ebook devices are bordering on falling into the same trap.
So I really don't want Apple to try and do an iPod. I want a real consumer electronics company to make such a device, but not provide content, simply implement the relevant formats. But I want them to have the attention to detail and simplicity of interface that Apple manage.
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