Quote:
Originally Posted by tubemonkey
Sony is a huge multinational conglomerate and can afford to charge high prices. They have very deep pockets with some $80 billion in revenue last year. eBooks are more like a hobby to them.
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That's a,
erm, novel perspective. Wal-mart is a gigantic corporation so it can afford to charge higher prices than its competitors?
Quote:
Originally Posted by tubemonkey
I'd consider a Kobo at $99, but not any higher. The Kindle is better spec'd. But I must say, that the black Kobo is the best looking ereader on the market today.
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You appear to be are discounting --
no pun intended -- what Kobo brings to the market, especially outside of the lower 48 states.
Kindle 3 is a great device at $139. But it doesn't offer simple (legal) public library access, or seamless (legal) access to DRM ePub files of content that Amazon doesn't carry. Kindle offers several extras that, at the end of the day, may not matter to a significant number of users -- like web browsing, on device twitter access and text-to-speech.
Kobo's $139 value proposition is an easy, simple user interface designed for reading. They've added a dictionary; they've added on device wifi delivery of content; they've added syncing of bookmarks across devices. Kobo continues to deliver seamless delivery of public library content, and DRM ePub (and non-DRM ePub for that matter). It's light and cozy; has a slip-resistant quilted back. The kobobooks bookstore offers localised content in multiple markets.
Remarkably, Nook and Sony cannot make similar claims having opted for a US-market only world or a touch-screen vs wifi content delivery gamble and, as noted, a willingness to attempt to charge $100 more (67% in Canada) for the same screen size. The Kobo comes with a $34 "bonus" of two Random House best sellers at the moment ... making it possible to buy a Kindle 3 AND a new Kobo wifi for the effective price of one PRS 650. Yup, that's "price leadership" by Sony ... and perhaps supports your notion that Sony is in the e-reader game as a hobby.