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Interesting yes. Sony is clearly trying to model the iPod+iTMS model, which is a big step forward in making this kind of thing accessible to the masses.
The thing that is missing is this: the iPod existed before the iTMS, and it is very easy to repurpose your own content for the iPod (with the exception of encrypted WMA files, which by the sounds of things not a lot of people are buying or renting anyway). People already had CD collections they could put on their iPod. It is going to be a lot harder for people to take the eBook collections they've accumulated and put it on the Sony, nor can you take your paper books and easily 'rip' them to the device.
The iPod is also a device people inherently understand, having already owned transistor radios, portable tape players, portable CD players, and so on. The eBook is really a whole new ball game for the mass market.
It probably isn't unrealistic to say that eBooks will double or triple their market space, but that market is so small now!
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