Let's look for a minute at their core businesses -
- Amazon does a great job of selling books (and other stuff)
- Sony excels at the design, manufacture and sales of consumer electronics
Now let's look at their subsidiary businesses -
- Sony does a poor job of selling books (Connect is feeble)
- Amazon's first attempt at designing and selling a consumer electronics gadget was less than stellar (it looks like it was designed by Google, lots of functions, but just plain ugly and not polished)
Amazon decided to use the Kindle to promote book sales in the electronic format. Making the move into consumer electronics is a big step and may not be the wisest decision ever made in the business world. It seems that someone has decided that, 'Hey we can make some money on this thing.' This is a big change for them and they may not be suited to this new market. This is their first attempt at designing a product in this market - perhaps a bit arrogant to assume that success in one business makes you smart enough to succeed in another where you have no experience. Sony falls into the same trap - they need a successful bookstore for the Reader to succeed. It's a slightly more familiar model that parallels the MP3 Player/Music Store model.
What I think would be great and won't likely ever happen is that Amazon will offer it's content to the Sony Reader market. As long as the Kindle is in the picture, this isn't going to happen. Perhaps Borders can put the Sony Reader on a more even content footing with the Kindle. Currently I'm far from starving for content on my Sony Reader, but having more options is very appealing. I wouldn't give up my Sony Reader for the current Kindle (I already carry other gadgets that far outshine it's added features), but I am jealous of the Amazon store and their book marketing muscle.
PCH