Quote:
Originally Posted by kjk
Sony used to own the high quality and design market for consumer electronics. Someone else has taken that chair  |
But do we really know that someone is Amazon? Has anyone actually used one of the final, production K3s yet? For all we know, Amazon really did have to skimp on quality, and use cheap parts to get the price-point down to where they did. When the Sony PRS-700 was announced there was a whole lot of excitement here - the light and the touch screen were considered serious advances.....until we actually had them in our hands. I'd like to see some reviews a month or so from now when real units get out there.
Sony has always done well with quality and I think they've really kept their ear to the ground as far as features. The touch screens are great interfaces, the build quality is excellent, they added a dictionary as customers requested, they added Epub support - even to models as far back as the original PRS-500. They have a variety of options for screen size and price point (and beat Amazon to the sub-$150 point). They DID slip up on the PRS-700, but recovered quickly (although I'm one of those owners that wishes they would acknowledge that the 700 DOES exist and could use some firmware love). And at least the 700 flubbed because they were trying to move forward, not because they were sitting pat.
Don't get me wrong - Amazon appears to have a major winner on their hands - one of the lowest prices around, the first use of a new generation of e-ink screen, and Whispernet is still a major advantage (at least for one segment of the market). I'm just not ready to count Sony out because Amazon beat them to the punch with their new model announcement. I AM curious though because to my knowledge we haven't even heard rumors of any new Sony models this year.