[markbot]

I suppose sony must assume buyers will be making their decision at the physical retail location thus sony has no need to present a rich multimedia review of the Sony readers. this is a very old way of thinking about consumer electronics if u ask me.

I was looking up the Sony 700 and there was no video presentation like with the Kindle....only some pics and a basic feature overview. it is sort of sold like any other electronic device....like a camera. they rely too much on third party review sites. they should be more aggressive and take more control.

i think if u r selling a new product category, u definitely need to provide more online information. the consumer is not well educated on the device....as like compared with a camera or laptop. sony doesn't even have the manual easily accessible, like the kindle does. Sony thinks the product sells itself which is not true for a new type of product.

this is one example of amazon's advantage over sony...the ability to sell. amazon has much better know-how in marketing and customer service, etc.

I also started using sony's ebook software so that I can download the google books. it is seriously crappy. sony clearly lacks 2 critical elements.....software expertise and marketing. competitors of sony that do have these expertise beat sony badly. Amazon and Apple are 2 examples.