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I was favourably disposed towards Amazon long before EBooks. I was buying paper books from them when it was cheaper for me to import them from the US to Australia than buy them locally. But Amazon has rarely got it wrong since, and even on those rare occasions has been quick to correct the situation and reverse the error.
Amazon is probably one of the most customer focussed companies around. Not out of altruism or because they are some sort of corporate saint, but because they recognnise that it is good business They have excellent prices, superb customer service, a wider variety of titles and an excellent and convenient delivery platform. They provide access to a whole new market of so-called Indie authors, many of whom would not otherwise be published, and at excellent prices. They have introduced the legacy publishers to what is arguably the first competition they have ever faced, and have thereby prevented ebooks being suppressed in the interests of preserving the print book business.
As a buyer and reader of ebooks, what is not to like about Amazon? I would prefer that they did not have the walled-garden approach, but don't think that this is a realistic expectation. That business model simply seems to be too successful to abandon. Arguably, Sony's actions in abandoning this model, laudable as they were, substantially contributed to the later downfall of their e-reading business. And Apple certainly shows no signs of abandoning this model. Instead, one might say, Apple's garden wall is topped with razor wire and guard posts.
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