What does the new Kindle and its price point mean ...

[rogue_librarian]

... for vendors like PocketBook? How will they react? Will they? Won't they have to? Interested in your thoughts.

[fjtorres]

It means the same thing as the $149 Nook WiFi: that they need to talk to their component suppliers and they need to make sure they offer enough value to justify whatever price point the choose to play at.
Kindles and Nooks are nice enough readers but their feature sets can use improving. There's still room for competition.

[GA Russell]

If the new Kindle's screen is an obvious improvement, then I expect that PocketBook and the others will have to dump their inventory and start over with the new eInk screen.

I see the $139 Kindle to be the new standard. A competitor will have to offer an obviously superior product, or a similar product at a lower price. Inferior products will be close to worthless, in the "give them away to poor Africans" category.

[Logseman]

I think it was in the German forum where it was hinted that Pocketbook wouldn't go with PixelQi (which had been the rage here just before Amazon released the new Kindle) and they'd go with the next-gen of eInk instead. Maybe they have some ace in their sleeve for the German fair IFA where they're supposed to present those readers (e.g. the new models sporting Pearl screens)?

[Dulin's Books]

what "we" need is help getting the word out that PocketBook is an excellent product. Despite Kindle sucking all the air out of the room Pocketbook offers a very good product at a very good price. the 360 is still one of the best readers available. The pocketbook firmware is still better. Kindle STILL has the same disadvantages- no expandable memory, no folders, less language support, less font support, no epub support.

[rogue_librarian]

I know that, and so do you all, of course. But the public at large? And if they do, will they care? For me "hackability", as it were, is important, and I'm prepared to pay a premium for that; but I know a lot of people for whom the selling price is the single most important factor. Add a recognized brand name and a store that leaves little to be desired to the mix and things are starting to get interesting.

In fact, PocketBook might be able to carve out a niche market there, I'm not too worried about them right now. But the others? Kobo, even Sony?

[krish]

Originally Posted by Logseman

I think it was in the German forum where it was hinted that Pocketbook wouldn't go with PixelQi (which had been the rage here just before Amazon released the new Kindle) and they'd go with the next-gen of eInk instead. Maybe they have some ace in their sleeve for the German fair IFA where they're supposed to present those readers (e.g. the new models sporting Pearl screens)?

I read in german & other russian forum where PB member confirming pearl screen would initially exclusively go to kindle / sony. I doubt any new product from PB, if released in 2 to 3 months, will have Pearl screen.

[darkforce]

I think most people don't care about technical spec much. What they expect is the product that works out-of-box. So, price is still the most crucial factor for them.

[kacir]

Originally Posted by Dulin's Books

Despite Kindle sucking all the air out of the room Pocketbook offers a very good product at a very good price. the 360 is still one of the best readers available.

----- DISCLAIMER -----
You know that I did my share of spreading the word, educating new users, discovering and publishing hacks, translating obscure Russian speaking pages with interesting stuff and other things for the community.
----- End of DISCLAIMER -----

Well, you - the distributor for USA - still have price point where an *educated* user, that did his pre-purchase research homework and decided that he values firmware features, the openness of firmware and good hardware design might decide they will pay the premium.

Let's have a look.
Kindle 3:
Wifi, better screen, $139

PocketBook 360 purchased in USA
better firmware (than K3), third-party addons, has lid, $199

PocketBook 360 purchased from www.PocketBook.de
better firmware (than K3), open to third-party addons, has lid, Preis: 239 EURO!

When considering Kindle 3 firmware, do not forget they support, Cyrillic, Greek, Chinese, Japanese, Korean, and possibly other languages, such as Central European ones now.

What do you think?


There is another aspect of the Amazon Kindle deal that few people noticed. Amazon sells Kindles in Europe for the same price as in USA. Nobody else does that. You do have to pay postage and you do have to pay VAT in your country, but it still is something like
$139 + $30 postage (A guess. Might be more or less) + 20%VAT on top of price AND postage (Bloody European Bureaucrats!) = $202 = 155 Euro

I have no idea whether Amazon is selling with a loss, or with zero profit, or with modest profit.

[Logseman]

It's obvious that Pocketbook will need to strengthen their niche aspect. Price-wise and stock-wise, it is completely impossible to compete with someone who can lose the profits of a month's worth of stock and sell for half your price.

BTW, kacir, Pocketbook has pushed a slight price reduction of 20 euro.

[rogue_librarian]

I think the shipping cost for the Kindle to Europe is 21$. Yes, you have to pay your country's VAT but you can hardly blame Amazon for that. Apart from that, as kacir said, I applaud their willingness to sell to a global market (something that many competitors, particularly Barnes & Noble, seem unable or unwilling to do) and at a global price.

[krish]

Amazon most likely selling with modest profit. At that price point, they would take advantage from huge increase in sales in no. of units and their main cash cow is their well developed kindle book store. Also advantage for Amazon pricing is they directly sell and not through dealers.

Dedicated ebook reader manufacturer can never able to match their price. What is expected from pocketbook is very good quality hardware design (sturdy design, not cheap plastics), excellent user friendly firmware with regular upgrades listening to customer feedback, good service. With all these advantages, people would be willing to pay premium price.
Hardware quality would definitely play an important role in decision making of regular non-computer savvy customers.

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by kacir

Let's have a look.
Kindle 3:
Wifi, better screen, $139

PocketBook 360 purchased in USA
better firmware (than K3), third-party addons, has lid, $199

The Pocketbook is going to tank. You have a device with the old screen and 5" at that. The K3 has a new screen and at 6". It may not sound like much, but a 6" screen vs a 5" screen is a big deal especially when the 6" screen is pearl and the 5" is Vizplex. Basically, 5" readers are toast unless they can go down to $100.

[kacir]

Originally Posted by JSWolf

It may not sound like much, but a 6" screen vs a 5" screen is a big deal.

I have used 6" device for quite a few years. I am using 5" PocketBook since November 2009.
I would still buy 5", even if the 6" unit was for the same price. For me portability and compact form factor is more important. I consider 5" to be ideal size for casual reading of fiction that can be repaginated to my exact liking.

I can have as much text on my 5" user configurable device as an average Kindle user on an average Kindle edition. Kindle books have relatively large margins, status line at the top, progress bar at the bottom. And you can't configure those things on Kindle.

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by kacir

I have used 6" device for quite a few years. I am using 5" PocketBook since November 2009.
I would still buy 5", even if the 6" unit was for the same price. For me portability and compact form factor is more important. I consider 5" to be ideal size for casual reading of fiction that can be repaginated to my exact liking.

I can have as much text on my 5" user configurable device as an average Kindle user on an average Kindle edition. Kindle books have relatively large margins, status line at the top, progress bar at the bottom. And you can't configure those things on Kindle.

Amazon Kindle..The iBooks of readers.