Fugobot, I get what you're saying about Sony's history, and I'm not disputing it at all, but I
would like to point out some recent departures from that historical performance that I see as hopeful signs that the Reader group might just be different from what we've seen from Sony in the past.
When, besides the Reader, have ever seen Sony actually
ask for and
answer questions from the prospective user base? Not just here, but on a couple of other forums as well. (though
most of the questions do seem to have come from MR
)
They seemed to respond to our initial reports of
prices being out of line with p-book prices. Granted the fixes seem to have been temporary in a lot of cases (which largely negates the point), but they did make them.
RWood
reported (and there have been some corroborating indications) that there is in fact an update to the ConnSoft and Reader firmware in the works, and it's expected shortly. I don't find the absence of a software/firmware update in the first 3 months of a product's launch to be discouraging -- this wasn't a beta release, after all! If anything, word of an update of some sort in the first 4 months, from a group that has demonstrated that they are willing to listen to what we're saying here, seems extremely
encouraging to me.
Part of the reason that the forum seems to have "encouraged the belief that Sony will be responsive to user comments" is because they actually
have been responsive to user comments around here. Your point that this isn't typical of what Sony has done in the past is well taken, but in the more recent past, it is what this division of Sony
has actually done. Of course there's no guarantee that it will
continue, but that's another question.
Quote:
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Originally Posted by Fugubot
Sony has traditionally moved on to the next version of a product rather than fixing old ones and the announcement yesterday of a wifi enabled Reader makes me worry that this cycle is happening again.
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While the wifi thing was speculation on the writer's part, I take your point here. I'm a bit concerned about that too.
On the other hand, some of the comments by one of the product managers in that
article in the Chronicle of Higher Education makes me wonder if they aren't thinking in terms of a more academically oriented model, nekokami's notional
academic tool , if you will.
Specifically, this snippet from the Chronical of Higher Education:
Quote:
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"The Reader was designed for more the type of reader who just reads a book on vacation and less as an academic tool," says David Seperson, a product manager at Sony who works on the Reader device. It will take more research to develop a device suitable for college work, he adds. "We are looking into what's the best way to approach the higher-education market."
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You're quite right that we shouldn't give Sony the benefit of the doubt when their past actions don't
leave much doubt, but I also think that we should give credit where it's due on the recent things the Reader group has actually done to try and bridge that gap. No it doesn't make up for everything in the past, but it seems to me to suggest that they'd like to stop being so evil (to co-opt and paraphrase Google's new motto, and one of
The Tick's catch phrases).
