Much as I would love to get the Sony Reader (I can't, I don't have enough spare cash lying around) because I think it would be incredibly useful to me, it hasn't done all that well in the market. In fact, the whole e-book concept hasn't gone down well with consumers. At least not as well as, say, Sony would have hoped. (Or as I would have hoped, because that might have considerably reduced the retail price of the Reader, thereby making it affordable to me!)
All that might change, though, with the introduction of Amazon's long-awaited, much rumoured-about, Kindle e-book reader. At least I hope things change. Kindle hasn't yet been launched by the way -- it's supposed to be launched later today in the US -- but it's already being talked about. Notably, in Newsweek's interview with Amazon's CEO, Jeff Bezos, though both CNET and Engadget have talked about it as well.
We learn in strategy that, in many ways, the holy grail of strategic competition is to change the industry (presumably in your favour!). Amazon's already done that a number of times and, through to the Kindle, they're hoping to do that yet again. Being a fan of both e-books and tablet PCs, I hope they succeed.
Expect more coverage (on this blog) of this device and of this strategic move as more details emerge.