Quote:
Originally Posted by carpetmojo
Sadly, I can't help thinking Amazon are more likely, at present, to make that step-leap into reaching the real mass-market that I'm sure they're after.
Their whole approach to ereading seems to have been been so much more focused on the long-term than the electronic giants, and with more of a game-plan in mind..............  |
Let them have the mass market in America. They already sell more than 30% of all readers sold in Germany and Russia. And they aren't even selling officially in Russia.
Here Sony is THE brand. Everything else is virtually unknown with the exception of Pocketbook. Epub is the standard and we are not very fond of monopols.
That said have a look at the newly opened Amazon Kindle store Germany and let's imagine I buy a reader for my mom, who is 71 now. To buy a book you have to download it from Amazon.com. All the "Kindle is sooo easy to use" is gone with that additional step. My mom wouldn't be able to do so and the keyboard would give here the dreaded "computer" feeling.
OTOH she has had Sony stuff all her live. TV's, Walkmen, even her radio-alarm-clock back in the 80's was a Sony. She loves the design and never had any trouble with their products.
She will love the touchscreen. She will depend on me to upload books for a while and in the end she will learn to do it by herself. I am sure a cable would give her much more confidence than wireless, because wireless is a concept that is quiet stranger for her. Even the TVset needs a cable to get cable TV, so how do I explain wireless to her?
A wireless loading Kindle with a keyboard may not look threatening to senior citizen of Miami who whizzes around in a golf cart all day and has a computer at home. Here were the older generation snubbs sportswear, rarely has a computer and is not so fond of technology at all, I'd say Sony will be good for a while.
Or I could be all wrong
