I have never had a single problem with my Kindle 1 or Kindle 2.

While in theory I could take my Cybook on a week long trip, I can’t imagine doing it without a laptop and expecting it to work the whole time. Not only do I need to charge it (because it stops working anywhere similar to well after 20% of the battery is used), although I can buy a wall charger and thereby get around that problem, but it frequently requires fixing through the computer. For example, just today I had to delete and readd my dictionary because for no reason at all it started rebooting every time I tried to look up a word. The thing is buggy like that. What I don’t know is how that compares to other e-ink readers out there.

The second and third Kindles could be charged via a USB port or an AC outlet.

Christine, the Kindle includes a cord that can connect to your computer for charging and/or downloading. It also includes an adapter that allows you to plug it into a standard wall outlet for charging.

Another advantage, I’d say, might lie in how easy it is for small-potatoes publishers and even authors, to publish on the K. This has an effect like the iPhone App Store, but it cuts both ways: self-published works on the Kindle threaten to drown out the big names with a rising tide of low-priced crap.

I still give Amazon the edge for at least 2 more years. It’s early, sure, but it looks to me as though this is a game for Amazon to lose; nobody else is likely to take it away from Amazon barring only one event: if all the monopoly big New York publisher/media companies boycotted the Kindle in favor of other devices and platforms, and if Amazon refused to play ball with them and tried to assert dominance the way Apple did with the music labels and NBC for video.

I think the publishers and Amazon leaders are too grown-up to let things reach that stage, though.

This allows Amazon to reach more of the market than just the computer-savvy. It reaches older generation readers who are self-proclaimed “computer illiterate” but could benefit from the Kindle’s flexible fonts and large type. It reaches people on-the-go who just want their morning paper or magazine delivered even when they are on the road. It reaches far more than just those early adopters who are willing to put up with clumsy synching and PC-dependencies demanded by Sony.

Amazon has made the Kindle experience so simple that anybody that can master the “Shop the Kindle Store” on the device can use it. With all its drawbacks (price, DRM, product life, etc.) the Kindle still provides the best experience for the mainstream, non-technical public, and those who just want to read. Put simply: my mom could use it. That one fact opens the Kindle market to a far greater audience than its competitors.