Last month Amazon.com announced that it would no longer carry any e-book formats except for the one supported by the Kindle, Amazon’s own e-book device. The reactions to this decision range from cynicism about Amazon’s business practices to anger at its exclusionary stance. It’s an interesting development.It may be that Amazon is just doing what monopolies do as they exercise their power. They think they know what is best for all concerned in their industry and make sure they serve it up. After all, in this catastrophic economy, the company also just announced that they topped their profits from the previous year. Things couldn’t be better.

Or it may be that this is first sign of nervousness – that this is the beginning of the end of Amazon’s supreme rule. Amazon is betting against the iPod and iPhone, thinking, in the end, readers will just ignore the developments of those technologies. Is that a good and reasonable bet? Or could that be foolish?

Amazon may grow for years and years and become even more powerful and successful. But exclusion and narrowing are not necessarily signs of strength. Technology advances so quickly. And the competition in the marketplace may provide readers with plenty of alternatives. Already other communities, such as Facebook and Myspace, are much larger than Amazon. Suppose those communities decide to sell books to their members. Or what about an array of niche Internet retailers selling to those interested in certain topics and that would offer more choices for print-on-demand publishers and e-reader platforms? It will be very compelling to see how the future of online bookselling unfolds and, perhaps, to participate in the shaping of things to come.