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purl4peace · 12-05-2008, 07:18 PM

What I would be more interested in the distribution of sales of readers since 2006. I would suspect that Sales of Sony readers took off last year with the release of the PRS-505 and since they could "piggy-back" on the attention the Kindle was getting.

Prior to the Kindle being announced, ebook readers were not really "mainstream". However, once the Kindle was announced, because it was being introduced to the masses, every article generally included some mention of Sony as their main competitor. (thus giving folks another option to look at). Plus, once Sony put their readers in Borders stores before Christmas last year so that people could play with one, it took a "gee -- that sounds cool" theoretical toy to "Wow -- I want one!".

In response to the radleyp who asked several pages back "who considers the Sony to be the better made device?"

I DO! I have talked to several kindle owners over on Amazon forums who indicated they were on their 2nd, 3rd, or 4th kindle because they dropped it and the plastic split apart. Drop a Sony? That metal case isn't coming apart any time soon.

And I do think that Kindle's supply issues will be a plus for Sony. I know several people who decided to buy a Sony when they saw that it would be months before they would ever see a Kindle. American's aren't known for delayed gratification -- even if Oprah tells them to.

As far as the Sony downloads, I think the folks that buy sonys are the ones who tended to already have a previous generation device and were more interested in converting their library rather than starting over. I have a Cybook with several .mobi books. Once I discovered this forum and Calibre for converting file types, I use Sony very little. In general, they don't have the books I'm looking for anyway.

I would LOVE LOVE LOVE if Amazon would open their ebook store to other formats. I think they are missing a fair amount of business here since it is second nature for many people to go to Amazon for their books. Once the Oprah effect has worn off and the Gen 2 Kindle comes out and proves to be only cosmetically different from Gen 1, I think Amazon will start to realize the market is selling content -- not hardware.

Heck -- that is how Sony made its fortune. They virtually gave away walkmans because the profit margin on CDs was so huge.

12-05-2008, 07:18 PM	#52
purl4peace Mommy of Many Interests Posts: 139 Karma: 660 Join Date: Sep 2008 Location: Wake Forest, NC Device: Kindle DX, Sony PRS-505, Cybook Gen3	What I would be more interested in the distribution of sales of readers since 2006. I would suspect that Sales of Sony readers took off last year with the release of the PRS-505 and since they could "piggy-back" on the attention the Kindle was getting. Prior to the Kindle being announced, ebook readers were not really "mainstream". However, once the Kindle was announced, because it was being introduced to the masses, every article generally included some mention of Sony as their main competitor. (thus giving folks another option to look at). Plus, once Sony put their readers in Borders stores before Christmas last year so that people could play with one, it took a "gee -- that sounds cool" theoretical toy to "Wow -- I want one!". In response to the radleyp who asked several pages back "who considers the Sony to be the better made device?" I DO! I have talked to several kindle owners over on Amazon forums who indicated they were on their 2nd, 3rd, or 4th kindle because they dropped it and the plastic split apart. Drop a Sony? That metal case isn't coming apart any time soon. And I do think that Kindle's supply issues will be a plus for Sony. I know several people who decided to buy a Sony when they saw that it would be months before they would ever see a Kindle. American's aren't known for delayed gratification -- even if Oprah tells them to. As far as the Sony downloads, I think the folks that buy sonys are the ones who tended to already have a previous generation device and were more interested in converting their library rather than starting over. I have a Cybook with several .mobi books. Once I discovered this forum and Calibre for converting file types, I use Sony very little. In general, they don't have the books I'm looking for anyway. I would LOVE LOVE LOVE if Amazon would open their ebook store to other formats. I think they are missing a fair amount of business here since it is second nature for many people to go to Amazon for their books. Once the Oprah effect has worn off and the Gen 2 Kindle comes out and proves to be only cosmetically different from Gen 1, I think Amazon will start to realize the market is selling content -- not hardware. Heck -- that is how Sony made its fortune. They virtually gave away walkmans because the profit margin on CDs was so huge.