Amazon use Kindle as a way to sell content. The device is not their main interest except as a vehicle for books.
The B&N reader, on the other hand, looks interesting. It’s made by an independent company Plastic Logic who want to sell their device and don’t appear to be interested in pushing digital content - it’s more of a way to store manuals and documents for business users who go on the road etc. with a small online capacity.

And it reads .pdfs and all common file formats and is letter-sized eg 8.5 x 11. Sounds worth a decent look.