A standardized format seems like a good thing, but I'd also like some way to guarantee continued access to my ebooks.
I buy almost all of my books from ereader (with a few from Powells or Fictionwise in the ereader format, and very few in other formats -- mslit or mobipocket). I'm not a big fan of DRM, but at least ereader's is pretty easy to live with. However, the problem of losing access to my whole library still exists. If ereader goes out of business, sooner or later the software won't be able to be run on whatever operating systems we'll be using then. At that point I guess I'd be willing to become a criminal and buy any illegal software that's written to convert the books.
I agree that prices are all over the place (and don't consistently change to keep up with the paper prices). I'm willing to live with that, but it can't be helping to promote widespread adoption.
I also think that makers of devices that are used for reading (PPCs, tablets, dedicated readers, or whatever), do a terrible job of promoting the devices for this purpose. My husband and I tend to read ebooks in restaurants on our PPCs (we're not very good company
), and almost daily either a server or another customer will come up and ask us about them; hardly anyone even knows that ebooks (or PPCs) exist! I wish Microsoft or the OEMs would try harder to exploit this market -- I don't know what I'll do if/when PPCs with decent sized VGA screens disappear. Does anyone read ebooks on a phone screen? I don't think my eyes are good enough, buy maybe younger people can manage it. If Sprint, etc. offer music downloads, maybe they should offer ebook downloads as well.
Whenever a new book is published that I want to read, I try to get it in ebook form. I'd estimate only about 15 to 20% of them are available as ebooks. I won't buy hardcovers because they're not portable enough, so publishers would get more of my money than they currently do if they released everything as ebooks. (I'd pay the hardcover price for the ebooks instead of waiting for the paperback).
I don't know much about the mechanics of publishing, but I'd assume that all current hardcopy books must exist in some digital format so I'd think formatting them as ebooks shouldn't be too expensive.
I don't understand why the publishers worry about ebook piracy. If a book is really popular, the paper copy will be scanned. If it's not really popular, they should be pleased for any additional sales from an ebook version.
It would also be nice if publishers would release more of their back catalog as ebooks. Most books totally disappear from bookstores within months of publication. I can see why physical space is scarce, but this wouldn't be a problem with ebooks. I was thrilled when Harper Collins (perfectbound) released almost every Agatha Christie book as an ebook. I bought them all, even though I'd probably read most of them two or three times already.