Quote:
Originally Posted by RSaunders
The real question is "How many more Sony readers would be bought if they marketed them?". I suspect the answer is "none". Amazon has bought all the eInk screens that can be made, and subsidizes Kindle sales because they have a good online store. The Sony online store has never been something to write home about, so I (for example) buy my ebooks at Amazon and Fictionwise. Sony has to make all its money on the hardware. If they can get N screens and sell N readers with no advertising, I can't imagine why they would want to advertise. Could they really get 2N screens? I don't think they could get more $$ for their N readers. They seem to be in a niche. They sell a better product at a premium price and lower volume.
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Agreed.
I'll also add that for all the kvetching that "sony doesn't know how to do marketing," they sure seem to know how to market Playstations.
Sony is choosing not to invest marketing dollars in the e-readers. Given that they know the ins and outs of their business far better than anyone on MR, I have to assume they know what they're doing, and that their lack of effort on marketing the Readers in the USA is a deliberately chosen path.