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Originally Posted by tomsem
But when I considers the entirety of the ecosystem in which each device resides, it is not even close: Amazon understands publishing, readers, and retail, they have a vision and they deliver on it. They have great customer service. You can read your content anywhere on virtually anything with a screen on it. There's all this social networking stuff, interesting and informative reviews of books you are considering buying, etc. They are going to have the most seamless library ebook borrowing feature out there (apart from Overdrive's iOS/Android apps). I doubt they'll even be making Kindles 3 years from now, but they'll be selling gazillions of ebooks. Kindle platform is not perfect, but it continues to improve and evolve and adjust to competitive reality.
Sony, not so much. It took Sony a couple of years to develop an app for Mac OS, which you need to buy books from Sony. What's that all about? Can't they build a web storefront like everybody else? Don't they want to be able to sell books to owners of other devices? Apparently not, and that's why their iOS reading app was rejected, they still have no 'multiscreen' strategy, and they don't sell a lot of books and have to make their profit on the hardware. But if they aren't going to make a go of their own storefront, why not at least update the RMSDK firmware so you can read B&N ebooks on the device (as most other RMSDK-enabled systems will at this point), and then sell in B&N as well as Borders? Sony's current line of ereaders are capable, and they sell well in some geographies (Japan, Russia), but they don't seem to have the focus to innovate and succeed in the long run as a player in this market.
Which is too bad, since it is still very early in the digital reading 'revolution' and only continued, strong competition can allow space for the kind of innovation that can explore its full potential.
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All your arguments refer to the American market. A market that is clearly dominated by Amazon. Why should any company waste money on a battle lost? Isn't it better to spend said money on developing markets?
Quote:
Originally Posted by Leyor
I wanted the best e-reader I could afford, for me that was the PRS-950. Looks great, reasonable build quality and I can use it on many different online book stores.
However it's extremely hard to get a Sony reader here, and impossible to get the PRS-950. So I had to order it from the US, send it to a friend, have him ship it here. To me thats poor availability. My UK and french friends have the same problem.
I wanted a cover, however they are sold out of/stopped producing the original cover, so I had to buy a bloody zip bag from them. Luckily I found someone on Etsy making a great cover for me.
I've never seen a Sony reader commercial, or advertisement, I've seen Kindles however.
It's great that the japanese love them, and that Sony apparantly ran into supply problems. But as with every other Sony niche product, it seems like they made a great product and then started screwing themselves on availability, supply, marketing and providing deriviative products.
I really want Sony to succeed, they have a great product. But no amount of posturing and defending them is going to change the fact that they are loosing out on alot of potential customers.
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950s are wifi readers whose task it is to download the newspapers. This is why they are called "The Daily Edition". To provide this service you have to have a working contract with a company selling internet/3G services. I would suggest you write to Sony and propose your business plan that covers the aforementioned services in the 19 countries where the Sonys are sold for naught.
Furthermore you will need storefronts to sell the newspapers making up for the telefon/internet service you might have to pay for. This would be the ultimate business coup as it is unheard of today that any company out there aiming to make money will do so. It should get you a place in heaven.
In case you fail to make this happen, you will want to decide Sonys plan of action, to sell the device only in the country where they can provide this and not loose money. Even if it were convienient for you and your friends I highly doubt Sony is in the market to loose money on you.