[Richey79]

The Pool Ad might come back to bite Amazon (and Sony as well) if there does turn out to be a provable hardware issue with Pearl screens overheating and slowing-down in the sun.

Sony always seem to have relied on word-of-mouth advertising and some (pretty paltry) store presence to sell their readers. Perhaps this is the point at which they need to try to push for wider market recognition and show they're serious about their ereader division.

It would be a shame to lose their products, because they are enjoyable for very different reasons to Amazon's. Their timing in releasing their new models could have been better (to put it kindly). If they'd managed to release two months earlier, they might have managed to steal at least some of the enthusiasm for K3. This is the problem for Sony - people on MR will consider the Sonys before making a purchase decision, Joe Public will look at the missing 'buzzword' features and price and immediately discount them.

I don't personally think the Sonys need wireless, and quite like having to connect them to a PC to transfer files. I'm pretty sure that mass opinion is against me on this, however. That issue and price are the two that may well put Sony's ereaders at a significant disadvantage in the market place. I'm betting they'll release at least one more generation, though.

- I was recently talking to my parents (60s, UK) about ereaders. It turned out they were well aware of their advantages and had looked at them about four years ago. They'd come close to buying a couple (even at £400, or whatever crazy price they were back then). They were Sonys, of course, and that meant that they would seriously consider them now, presuming that the higher price means better build quality.

Interesting that this longer history of store presence might work out as an advantage for Sony. Good for them, I say.