Quote:
Originally Posted by din155
Yeah, but won't it also mean that people have already invested in ereaders including like Sony/iRiver that Waterstone's itslef sold and will not be interested in investing in new ereaders? I will be happier if they brought the prices of their ebooks down at least at par with Amazon. Or maybe they are banking on their customers who have not brought ereaders yet but are willing to wait till next year.
din
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As Waterstone's hasn't exactly been pushing eReaders too heavily in store, perhaps this won't be that big an issue. Whenever I'm in Waterstone's I NEVER, EVER, see anybody trying out the two they usually have on display.
If they improve the current buying experience (i.e. their clunky website), and promote waterstones.com as a viable (and more importantly, better) alternative to Amazon, then perhaps they will not alienate early adopters who bought other eReaders from them.
Not everybody will want to strip the DRM from titles downloaded from the Kindle store and then convert them using Calibre. If they can get their regular customers onboard and not have them feel they are being ripped off when they hear how their friends are getting eBooks at least 25% cheaper from their biggest internet rival, then perhaps Waterstone's ARE on to something. We'll see.
EDIT: Oh, and this is also welcome news:
Waterstone's drops 3-for-2 book deal. They are switching to a £3, £5, or £7 pricing structure. Much better clarity for the customer. And no having to spend an hour looking for that third book you're not sure you want to make up the deal. I only used to buy from Waterstone's at Christmas. One book for myself, and the other two as gifts. I never wanted to pay full RRP, so I've end up only buying books from the 3-for-2. By the sounds of it, they won't be charging full RRP on most titles soon, in any case.