Quote:
Originally Posted by JSWolf
Ok, how would you get to this page if you did not already have the link? When I go to the Sony Style website, I can easily find the PRS-505.
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I'm not sure if I understand your question. What I linked to is the official Sony Reader home page, which is not part of the SonyStyle website and contains no working links to the SonyStyle website. If you'll read the entirety of what I wrote, which it doesn't seem like you did, I said several times that this is actually a change from only a couple of weeks ago when they actually had two working links to the SonyStyle website. These links were questionable, in that they connected to the currently-defunct SonyStyle product page for the PRS-500. The 500's page actually contains no links or pictures of the 505, so if you had visited the Sony Reader official homepage and clicked on the "buy now" link, you would have encountered no information whatsoever about the PRS-505 and no way of knowing it existed without prior knowledge.
Since then, they've removed the removed the flash menu bar that had one of the links to the SonyStyle PRS-500 product page and made the other link
non-working. So, once again, the official website, which is separate from SonyStyle, doesn't even contain any links to the online "store" for the Reader.
You ask me how would get to this page if I did not already have the link? Google, which is the only obvious way for people to find out about the Reader's SonyStyle product page, even after having visited the official website. This is a problem, and that is as clearly as I can describe it.
Quote:
Originally Posted by yvanleterrible
@spooky69
They can do whatever they want with it and good for them. All of this to say that Sony has its tentacles tied. Why waste money advertising when you know you won't fill demand?
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That that first statement if very debatable, but you have a good point about spending advertising dollars on a product for which they can't fill the demand (though, I've noticed, the blue PRS-505 is still available directly from SonyStyle, and both colors are certainly still available from numerous other sources). There's still no argument, however, for having a website that doesn't even show a single picture of the PRS-505, since the main purpose of that website would be to create awareness about the Sony Reader and its features. In not having a website that can provide this information and create an impression of the 505, Sony is failing to keep casual consumer informed about their newest product (or even the way it looks), and is clearly leaving the money from future purchases on the table. Just think about it: there are certainly some people who would go to
this website, see the product, and decide it's not for them. While all you most of the people on here are intimately familiar with the existence of that Sony Reader, the person who's just browsed in would have no way of knowing about the new 505 model, which might appeal to them significantly more than the one Sony shows on there currently. This is especially egregious in light of the fact that these people who are surfing in are probably going to have heard of (and seen) the Amazon Kindle first, and Sony is missing a chance to "wow" them with the (I think) much sleeker-looking PRS-505. By failing to generate awareness of it in a medium that already exists and is essentially free, Sony is losing out on future purchases of the PRS-505.
Finally, I'd mention that even if Sony can't meet the current demand for the Reader, it's certainly not a problem if public awareness of the product outstrips their ability to deliver it to that public. The Nintendo Wii is a perfect example of a similarly-priced electronic item that continues to fall short of meeting demand as is still an unmitigated success for the company that sells it. Having people clamoring to give you money is rarely a bad thing.