It might well be that a “Kindle reader” for the iPhone will end up being just the same: you can now read mobis without breaking the encryption, but you have to flip a bit first.

One thing our analyst Mr Lindsay does not mention here, is the cost to Amazon of the cell phone connection bandwidth the Kindle uses. This might be an alternate reason to keep numbers limited. But I don’t believe Amazon does want to limit the Kindle’s success.

Multiple formats to read kindle-editions would indeed make it (even more) the dominant ebook platform. They might well add a ‘Library’ feature, so that you could access any of your purchased books, and pick up where you left off. An iPhone Kindle-reading app would also save Amazon those bandwidth charges, and immediately make Kindle-platform the one to beat. Epub would be left in the dust, far behind pdf and html and txt.

Another thing Amazon could do to crush all alternatives is a library initiative. Say you could read a kindle edition book on your smartphone, desktop computer, or laptop. Amazon could then offer a subscription service to libraries. Again, Amazon dominates yet another branch of the ebook world.

Honestly, publishers ought to be wary. Amazon is in a position to take over ebooks the way MicroSoft took over PCs. I rather imagine Mr Bezos would like to do so. There are so many ways that Amazon can win all the marbles here, they are going to have to mess up royally NOT to totally dominate.