The Financial Times reports that Sony will standardise the format of their ebooks.
That brings up 2 questions for me.

• Will they update the software on existing readers to allow the new format to be used?
• Will this mean that for customers outside the US will be able to buy their books from more than one source?

I like the sony ereader but the whole experience of getting books that I actually want has been a frustrating experience. Customers from Ireland are restricted to the Waterstone’s site and the selection of books that I actually want to read there is really small. In addition, the interface on the Waterstones site is bad. I’m not interested in buying physical books from them. If they want my business, they need to have those books in ebook format. Otherwise, I buy from Amazon or physical bookshops.
If I can buy physical books from the Amazon US site, why can’t I buy books from the central Sony store? Sony, Waterstones and publishers in general need to wake up to make this experience as easy and straightforward as Apple can make it.