[SensualPoet]

As a recent e-book device owner (Friday), I had evaluated the Sony reader and played with it at a street fair book event a year ago. Very impressive. But, no sale: I waited for the Amazon Kindle 2 to be available in Canada.

Why? Amazon. The brand (and customer service) is to books what Sony is not: it's the content, baby. B&N's Nook looks lovely: but what's the B&N presence outside of the US?

And I have to say the wireless thing is incredibly compelling -- even though it is "crippled" outside of the US. It works on books from Amazon at least. Did I mention the true value of the device is the content, baby?

There is room for improvement: and I can wait as Amazon assesses all the new players and makes incremental improvements through the OS and larger ones through Kindle 3 or Kindle DX 2.

As much as I admire Sony, and can relate to the goodies in B&N's Nook, and some of the added value in other devices, the winner is going to be the player that delivers a highly capable device, at a competitive price, and makes content acquisition dead simple. In the current horse race, Amazon is ahead by much more than a nose.