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The problem with ebooks and ereaders are that the ereaders are made by the book sellers for the purpose of selling books. It's hard for anyone who isn't a book seller to compete with this because the book sellers can sell the devices cheap since book sales are their object.
A better plan would be for hardware manufacturers to sell ereaders and book sellers to sell books. Of course that's not going to happen any time soon.
I think what might eventually change some of this will be when the justice department decides that exclusive books are anti-competitive, which, of course they are. And that vertical integration, book sellers providing ereaders, is anti-competitive, which it is. I'm not predicting this will happen but I hope it will eventually.
Of course if it does happen ereaders are going to be a lot more expensive. But all things considered that's a good thing.
The ideal would be a broad choice of ereaders, each of which can read books from any source.
Barry
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