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Originally Posted by Liviu_5
Amazon has subsidiaries all over too (.uk, .fr, .de and so on);
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It does, but it doesn't have the global reach of Sony. (Is there an Amazon HK, for example?)
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My opinion is that it is too much trouble to sell electronics from the US store overseas (laws, warranties, voltage) and too much trouble for the subsidiaries to go sell the product since it's too marginal right now.
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I think you're exactly right. At the moment, they are gauging the market. The first roll-out is in the US. If it takes off here, we'll start to see it become available elsewhere, with the required adjustments for the stuff you mentioned.
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A small company like Bookeen is forced to try and sell anywhere it can and the potential loss is not big (small company goes under; happens all the time);
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Sure. And Bookeen will survive by rigid cost control and careful planning. They'll make sure there's a market before they build. They probably don't have the resources to survive a flop.
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Amazon and Sony are too big and stand to lose too much for a very marginal product if things go bad. If Amazon would sell Kindles in numbers like Ipods or Sony would sell the PRS in numbers like Play Station I would bet they would immediately start selling the readers anywhere too.
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True enough. An Amazon and Sony are dipping their toes into this particular water.
Sony has to sell a
lot of them to make it worth their while. I'd call what they've done so far a pilot project to see if there is a big enough market that they can profitably address.
Amazon is in a similar position, with the additional wrinkle that they are selling their own branded hardware as well as content, which is a new business for them. Supplies of Kindles are tight because they didn't make that many in the initial production run.
Forecasting demand for a new product is always a crap shoot, and companies introducing new products will be conservative in how many they build till they get a feel for the market. They can always make more to meet demand, but what they do with product for which there
isn't a demand is another matter.
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Dennis