Quote:
Originally Posted by J. Strnad
Failure to properly hydrate during extended reading sessions.
Seriously, I think that the price war is going to hit those companies who need a healthy profit margin to survive. I see most reading devices as a commodity, the thing you need to read your ebooks, rather than a "hot" or "cool" item that you pay a premium for. Those devices that aren't attached to a bookstore, that don't have ebook sales as a revenue stream, are going to have a hard time producing a device that competes on price and returns a profit.
If I were in charge of marketing the Kobo, I would look for opportunities for product placement in media. Not that it has to be woven into a storyline, but if a character could simply be seen reading a Kobo when the doorbell rings, that would be priceless exposure.
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You're right. I kinda feel sorry for the smaller players on the market that make great devices, such as Onyx, BeBook, PocketBook.... But the thing that matter the most at the end is price and availability. I was also thinking of one of those smaller companies, but the limited availability and high prices made me choose Kobo and Nook in the end.
But if the market follows the trends of the mp3 player market, we still might be in for a few surprises. Lower market share players had to eventually decrease their prices to the iPod level while maintaining their superior feature advantage. Let's see what happens. I think the less "corporate" readers will continue to sell in Europe and places where Amazon, Borders and B&N have not penetrated yet...