I bet with SCION, two months ago when Nook Touch came out, that Sony was going to drop prices ...
... and this is basically the confirmation.
The price, when not the only factor, it is an important one when taking that final purchase decision. Take for example HP and its most recent Touchpad. They just made the $399.00 a permanent price, and that's a tablet, not a eink reader, so you can do much more than just read books.
Now, being USA one of the biggest market for ereaders and with all these economic problems we have at this moment, keep pushing Sony readers above $200.00 barrier is just a mistake.
I do like Sony readers, good quality, nice firmware, etc, but they are not for me, for two reasons: not same selection of books like other online bookstore offer and expensive, too expensive for being an eink reader.
I would say $140.00 or even $150.00 is a more realistic price. The fact that they are dropping prices is a clear indicative that they are not doing well and the market pressure is getting uglier.