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Right. Reputations are deserving at some point. They may continue for awhile due to inertia, but a reputation doesn't build up when there is nothing deserving of it.
Either way, Sony, at least to me, obviously makes steps based upon how it thinks its brand name will carry them. This is why you get perceived missteps like the rootkit fiasco and a $700 PS3. If the marketplace really doesn't want a $350.00 ebook reader, then it won't sell and Sony will figure it out.
The only thing that worries me about this whole conversation is that I wonder if Sony is attempting to create a market it can corner and will stop if it can't do that. If the eBook reader is largely successful, Sony does two very important things: 1. Its Reader becomes Coke to everyone else's Pepsi; and 2. Sony becomes the iTunes of books with its fingers in the very lucrative publishing industry, an area where Sony likely wouldn't mind a few acquisitions.
Now if it doesn't succeed? I don't think it means eBooks are dead or that Sony necessarily did it wrong. But I think that because of Sony's large presence in the marketplace, it could give other manufacturers pause about jumping in.
My opinion, for what it's worth.
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