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Don't let them steamroller you Barryem, I think it's an interesting discussion, even if some appear to want to squash it.
There are a couple things going on. First, exclusive deals have been around a very long time and in many different categories. It is, of course, on it's face anti-competitive, but like cornering the silver market, it's pretty hard to actually make it work. Amazon is trying to lock people in, but a lot of authors try it and then back out of it when they discover it's not such a good deal. That basically means that KU is going to remain a niche product, much like the old used book swap stores.
As far as ebook stores with their own devices, I don't really see it as a big issue. Actual ebook devices seems to remain in the niche market with more and more people reading on their phones and or tablets. I think that it really comes down to people not wanting to carry a bunch of devices around with them.
It sure would be nice if there was a standard mechanism for getting books on a device so that your reading app wasn't tied to your ebook store, but I don't see Amazon, Apple or B&N or Kobo going along with that and I don't really think that most people really care all that much. Most are quite happy reading with the Kindle app or Books app. Heck it would be nice if the ebook stores would simply drop DRM just like most of the music stores have done, but I don't really see what would drive that change.
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