Successful independent publishing is possible. Here is a short Tech Crunch article about a writer who self-published via Amazon's Kindle platform and later struck a publishing deal with Simon and Schuster.

A significant factor in his success (besides the apparent quality of the novel) was heavy self-promotion of his book (i.e., hard work).

Bonus!: Here is a write-up on the anticipated Apple MacPad, a competitor to the Amazon Kindle. Apple is trying to make the MacPad compelling even to current iPhone owners.