Quote:
Originally Posted by ProfCrash
I don't know, Sony has hung in with a similar model and a higher price point for a while there. Sony was, heck still might be, the prefered ereader outside the US. Sony has never had a good supply of books, the customer service has always been suspect, and the hardware is limited.
Sony was screwed in the US when the Kindle entered the scene but seems to be doing ok outside the US.
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Sony has a rabid brand loyalty from the kids that grew up with the Playstation One. To this day they are mortally offended that Microsoft *dared* to compete at all.
B&N has no such brand loyalty equity to draw upon outside the US.
Besides, Sony readers (and their bookstore) are generic ADEPT to the core in DRM and reading app so they are as open as any other epub vendor. So if you are religious about ebook format Sony is the reader for you.
Me, I think Sony really only made one mistake: adopting ADEPT in the first place.
Everything else they could have overcome (the 700, the pricing mis-steps, the lack of wireless) but not that one.
It cost them a whole year in rebuilding their ebookstore and that was the year when Kindle was ramping up. By the time they were ready to compete head on with Kindle, Amazon was on to the K2 and they never looked back. After that everything has been trying to play catch-up and simply too little/too late.
So in that respect, the one thing that cost them their first mover advantage is the only thing keeping them relevant these days. It's a funny business.