jim said:

I don’t always feel compelled to buy paper books with the newest cover on them either.

jim, i'm sure you know that that's a very bad analogy.

Actually, I’ve run into a bunch of people who are interested in ebooks in order to *reduce* the price of their book buying habits.  Student on a budget, for example.

that's still not a reason to buy outdated technology...  

Also, I or other PG devs might get one just so we have an ePub based eReader as well as MOBI-based ones.

you imply that this "epub-based reader" will be just as good as any other one that happens along. it won't, i assure you... they are giving people a very clear signal that they are _not_ gonna support these models going forward. heed that signal.

But then I might be tempted to spend the extra $40 to get wifi, or the extra money to get a Sony Reader, or a Nook…

…it shows the marketeers are getting their pricing right if one can’t figure out what to buy.  

all of those decisions would be much smarter decisions, yes. there is no question about "which one to buy" in this situation. do _not_ buy this outdated technology which they are dumping. spend the extra $40 or more to get a machine that you will use. -bowerbird