Quote:
Originally Posted by emellaich
I wonder if our different viewpoints have to do with our locations? The Kindle is out in the US and Sony has distribution through one of our biggest book store chains and through Target, one of our biggest department stores. The Gen3 is really only available from the manufacturer web site in the US. Until Astak, there really wasn't a 'local' source for Jinke.
On the other hand, your situations is definitely different. No Amazon Kindle. And was the previous gen Sony available in Europe? Also, I hear you folks talk about the retailers who carry the Bookeen, and they don't mean anything to me. As a result, I might not really understand just how strong the Bookeen is in Europe. Likewise, I hear that Jinke is strong in Eastern Europe, but its hard for me to really understand the extent of that from here.
Bottom line is that we may be experiencing two quite different market dynamics.
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I do think that the situation is different in Europe. Here, as you say, we have no Kindle, and hence no perception that anybody is "dominating" the market. Sony are the manufacturer that we are most "exposed" to - the Sony Reader is on sale at Sony stores (and in other places too) in several European countries - currently the UK, Ireland, France, Germany, and Austria, and is about to be launched in several other countries too. The smaller brands are definitely more wide-spread here, though, and Bookeen are probably the best-known of the smaller manufacturers.