Quote:
Originally Posted by wolfing
If money is an issue, go for the Kindle. Sony already said that they won't participate in the 'price war', and that they will concentrate on releasing 'high end' ebook readers.
I love my PRS-600, but it really looks like Sony is thinking of leaving the ebook reader market. They haven't released an update to the firmware in almost a year (and it could certainly use one).
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Sony usually says these things and then ends up competing on price anyway. (see their position on laptops, TVs, game machines, etc etc). I do think there is a non-negligible possibility that Sony may leave the market completely, but they would only do this if there was no more business to continue pursuing. They did this in the past with their line of PDAs, the Clie. That was due to the death of the standalone PDA market, though.
Back in 2006, I had a 50/50 bet that Sony would abandon ebook readers a year or two after the initial launch of the PRS-500 (which I bought at full price!). Seems like they've only strengthened their commitment, but the market for ebook readers is significantly different today compared to four years ago.
Time seems ripe for the annual refreshes (perhaps powered by E-ink Pearl). I imagine if they want to stay in the game, all models in the 2010 line will pack either wifi, 3G, or both. The over-the-air download method is the key to making e-books usable for the average customer. Fiddling with desktop software should not be the primary method of obtaining books for a reader from a company with an ecommerce backend. Amazon was the first to realize this.