Quote:
Originally Posted by rkomar
Price differences seem to prick the most at the time of purchase, but then living with missing features and prolonged aggravations afterwards often causes a reassessment.
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Quote:
Originally Posted by troll05
Prices may make a difference for the spontaneous buyer, but for somebody who did some research on his new toy I don't think it is all there is to consider, especially with the mare than affordable new "basic" devices for far less than 100 bucks
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Agreed, and what both of you say surely goes for virtually all mobileread users - yet I am not sure how much this counts "outside", especially as my guess is that ease of use and availability to purchase can push you towards a reader on impulse. Not scientific, really, but you cannot fail noticing the masses of Kobo readers on display at Gatwick, Heathrow and Edinburgh airport - picture somebody about to go on holiday, plays around with the thing a little bit, and what the hell, for £60 I'll get all these great books. And you don't need to be an expert to change fonts and adjust margins or all the rest, nor bother with DRM and company to buy a book, as you dowload it straight to the machine.
Preempalver can correct me if I am wrong: I think PB did get into a similar agreement with IBS (Internet Book Store) in Italy to sell their devices, though unlike Kobo I think you have to register with Adobe to use the reader (whereas with Kobo I think they take care of it if you buy from Kobobooks directly). It would be interesting to know how ereader sales are going in Italy, and I wonder what prevented PB from entering into similar agreements with book stores in the UK. Then they would get these bookstores, like IBS, to deal with customers.
My guess is that PB will keep having a niche of die hard supporters, but the fact that we no longer have a PB representative on this forum is going to be felt in the medium run (isn't the German forum, with Fork, much more active?). I really do wonder what the point is of the "wanted features" sticky thread....