[Poppaea]

Originally Posted by darknessangel

I'm aware of your arguments. However, I'm talking about the competitiveness of Sony vs Kindle, where Sony can certainly take some qualities/ideas from Amazon in order to gain some edge... because you can't really say that sony readers more popular are than kindle. And I say this personally having a prs-505, I love it and I really don't like the kindle design but the business model is another thing.

More popular where????

Sony is No 2 in America, No1 in Germany and funny enough No1 in Russia while not even sold officially there.

The Kindle business model is not so easy to transport over the world as it is language bound.

With a Sony I can buy my ebooks with FNAC in French, Libri or Ciando in German, Elaleph in Spanish and Sony, Kobo, Bookdepository, Smashwords, whoever in English. I can compare prices and buy the language I need.

Would you please show me where to buy a Russian Amazon book?

Furthermore the convenience and instant reward of wifi is only hyped in America, it is of very little consequence for Europeans.

Originally Posted by hidari

Well, I hope that all the ebook reader companies keep making models with eink into the near and distant future. The more choice the better. The Gods help us if it only comes down to one company making eink devices.....

Originally Posted by astra

This is from an interview with Steve Haber and PublishersWeekly made in Feb 2011:

He said the devices were selling well. Sony’s Daily Edition, the only Sony device offering wireless download, is the only one of the devices currently still in stock. The Pocket and Touch editions have sold out, he said, and Sony is working to get more back into stores. Although Haber would not give precise figures, he said they had sold “millions” of devices and that “there’s not enough product to satisfy demand. Retailers are happy with the sell through but not with our supply.” He said the Daily Edition was selling “extremely well,” but is only available for sale in the U.S. The Pocket and Touch editions are available for sale in 19 countries.

Haber said Sony has upgraded the Sony Reader e-bookstore allowing for sales (it will support multiple currencies) through the website. They’ve also launched a program in 30 public libraries that will put two Sony devices in each library for public use and offer two devices to be loaned out. “We plan to increase the size of this program on a case by case basis,” he said.

He said the growing popularity and fascination with full color multimedia tablet devices—not only the iPad but the big influx of tablets set to hit the market by the summer—was “great for the overall industry. Anything that moves people from paper to digital is a win.” While he admitted that e-ink devices “don’t work for magazines, you’re not going to read Vogue on an e-ink device, but they are great for black and white books.”

He added, “you’ll continue to see devices that are easy on the eyes. Reading on a device with the equivalent of a lightbulb shining behind it is difficult for some people. E-ink devices are not doomed; people will have multiple reading devices.” Indeed he continually used the phrase, “e-ink devices are designed to replace traditional books,” unapologetically. “When the first black and white Sony Reader came out, everyone said, what’s this? The world is in color. But the Sony Reader is not a Swiss Army knife.”

In fact he told PW how the Sony e-ink devices turned him into reader (that and a nudge from his wife, an early fan of the device who told him it was “cool”) after he realized that ease and convenience of digital reading. “Change can make people uncomfortable but when they see the positives of digital reading—it makes people read more—it can be awesome.”