Only one thing that exacerbates eBook market is tons of DRMs out there. Even though you have such a great device like e-Ink device (Sony Reader, Amazon Kindle), or Nokia Internet Table (which has very nice screen, 220dpi), or even your PDA or notebook, you still have very huge obstacle in order to read because most devices have their own backing, and they mostly accept only one DRM.
good e-book store and good device are parallel; You may think unlike me since MobiPocket.com, eReader.com, etc. offer many platforms like Mac, Windows, Palm, PPC, and Symbian. That covers almost all devices people use this day. Nonetheless, sadly, none of them are suitable for reading e-book. Since PDAs have such a low resolution and too small screen, thus you will end up with your eye pain after several pages. Any notebook or sub-notebook to date is too large to consider as portable, then you will find you couldn't read any time you want or it won't last long to the book ended.
Suitable devices I could find all have the problem with DRM one way or the other. Firstly Nokia 770 or N800 series could be a good e-book reader device since they are portable and have decent screen, enough battery life, and great e-book reader program I could find--FBReader. But then again it doesn't support any protected e-book. Also, Kindle and Sony Reader are too strict to their own DRM and the bad part is their stores don't have the large resource as other stores.
About the store, MobiPocket and eReader are the websites who really strict on their DRM while Fictionwise offers various formats--support wide range of devices, both DRM and non-DRM. I won't say it's better than others, but I just hope there will be one provider who has bunches of e-books and provide a program for all e-book platforms really. As you may know, it doesn't that much, only a few more platforms left. Or actually Fictionwise + eReader could release their e-Ink or good enough device; that solution could be nice since they have enough resource to build up the community already.
Just so you know, I'm one of Fictionwise and MobiPocket customers, but not eReader. And I have heard that eReader is so good to allow your e-book, which encrypted with your own credit card number, to put in many devices as you want. IMO, It's a better way comparing to MobiPocket that allows you to use with only 4 (or 5?) devices at a times--you may add/remove devices as you want, so you could count it as any devices, but it's just too much effort.
Briefly, I however just don't care how it works. All I care is having the better device for reading and I am able to use that to read books I want without any trouble or effort. I bet there are people like me a lot and that's the main reason why they are still reluctant to buy e-book reader and e-book for the time being. Perhaps we just have to wait an iPod-like e-book reader--the one that's good enough to rule them all. I hope merging of Fictionwise and eReader could do some impact to an e-book landscape rather than they just want to gain more profit themselves.