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The question in a thread that was dumped into this one was, "How sustainable is the Kindle's early success?" The answer is the the Kindle is going to have to stay ahead of the competition, which I think means it's going to have to go color as soon as possible (could be a year but not much longer, I think). Most of us have an incentive to stay with Amazon, because we have invested in a bunch of books that can't (easily) be read on another device.
I think that we are witnessing the birth of a new form-factor, the Kindle-sized device, which is a lot smaller than a laptop but won't fit in a pocket. In the near future, we are going to see a lot of nearly full-scale computers that are Kindle-sized, that play movies and can be used for reading books and communicating via email.
One thing that I find really weird about Kindles right now is that if I want to buy a book that is NOT Kindelized, I really can't do it on my Kindle. Why not -- has Amazon got an objection to making more money? I just bought a copy of a book I am reading on my Kindle for someone who doesn't have a Kindle, so naturally I sent her a physical book.
And I should be able to buy a TV on my Kindle, why not? Amazon needs to use the tremendous power and convenience the Kindle gives Amazon and the user. In a way, with the Kindle, Amazon has created an 'Amazon Fan Club', and I can't be the only one who has started making more purchases from Amazon in addition to e-books.
If Amazon doesn't keep up with the fast pace, Barnes and Nobel will, or someone else...
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