Quote:
Originally Posted by griffonwing
But if the mainstream players (Sony, Amazon) are releasing crippled devices for 200, and saving the bells and whistles for the 300-500 range, then I don't see the public jumping as fast as they would otherwise.
By crippled, I am referring to the limited features of the 300, which is Sony's 199 price-point device. Any device which is not user-friendly (replaceable battery, user-defined storage like SD cards, etc..) I consider to be crippled, and has an impact on whether or not I will purchase.
I'm not certain what kind of 199 device that Kindle expects to put out. I have not been following them.
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The 300 is not crippled. It's deliberately limited, but it's not crippled. It has enough user-accessible storage to more than cover what the average person will read in a couple of years - possibly even the life of the device.
All the evidence indicates that the 300 will be better than the 500 for actually reading books, and that's its primary function. It won't be perfect - but it will be a decent reading device.
For most people, the term "user friendliness" is more about simplicity of use than ease of maintenance. Replacing the battery isn't part of normal use so they won't worry about it. Many people only worry about expandable storage if they feel the device doesn't have enough internal storage.
For the average person, it should be perfectly usable the same way most mp3 players are - plug it into your computer, load it up, and away you go.
Yes it's got fewer features than the Astak Pocket Pro, but it has enough important features that it will be a perfectly viable reading device at a reasonable price point with retail presence. I also wouldn't be surprised to see it online at $170-180 within the next 3-6 months at the outside.
It's going to work, meet many people's needs and probably sell very well.