With all the talk of new gizmos coming out left, right and centre I am wondering---do you shop strictly for features, or are you loyal to any particular 'brand'? I am interested in features, but I have to admit, I do feel a pull to the Sony brand. My first 'ebook reader' was a Clie, when I was marooned in a foreign country in a small rural community with no bookstores. I later moved onto other things, including an iPod Touch (and if the Apple tablet ever comes to pass, I admit I would be sorely tempted!)
But Sony has also won my heart a little because I live in the jungle hinterlands of Canada where there are few ebook readers to be had (we have the worst cell phone companies in the world, plus tricky territorial considerations which are beyond stupid but will remain a problem until After the Revolution Comes). And the Sony is one of the few players to embrace Canada. We can use the Sony store. We can get the same freebies, including the Google Books, and now on Macs too. My public library has several hundred epub and PDF books available for download. I even bought the reader retail!
I also feel that Sony, as a major player in the admittedly still-emerging ebook market, has a proven track record of sticking with this for the logn haul and of trying to offer a competitive product. If Amazon or BN or whomever comes out with some killer new feature, I expect that Sony will try to match it eventually, so I feel like I can stick with them and be okay.
An Apple tablet would tempt me, as would a reader with both a search function and with dictionary support in more than one language (I would dearly love to read in French more, but I need to have a dictionary!) But wifi I could take or leave. And honestly, I am a little resentful that poor old Canada has been so ignored---by everyone but my good buddies at Sony!
So in some sense I am mindful of the features issue. But if something killer did come out, I think I would observe and wait to see what Sony says about it. I do feel that by offering such good support to Canada---and being the only ones to really do that----they have scored some customer loyalty off me. I can't say whether this was a strategic part of their business plan or just a happy side effect of everybody elses utter incompetence in failing to provide for the Canadian market
But, much as it all comes down to 'does it do the job or not' for me, there is definitely an element of 'I am loyal to Sony' too.
So, how about you?