Quote:
Originally Posted by Kali Yuga
I don't think that's what the article is suggesting at all. They're saying that B&N and Sony are missing a critical sales window, while Amazon has enough stock to exploit the hype / interest during the time of year where a lot of product is sold. (Plus Sony isn't a "newcomer," it preceded Amazon in this market.) I.e. he's focusing on the "missed opportunity," not manufacturing skills.
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While Sony's had a few previous readers and
we know about, the article clearly
implies that Sony is a newbie in the ereader market by closely coupling 'this year Sony released' to 'Barnes & Noble entered the market'
Add in 'Meanwhile, Amazon, an old pro in this market,' which is clearly meant to
imply that they know what they're doing and obviously have had no supply problems of their own during past holidays, despite the fact that the DX now has a 4-to-6 week shipping delay.
If all the article did was say that Sony ad B&N were missing an important sales window, it would be fine, but the article does more than that: it implies that the newcomers are incompetent and the All-Perfect Amazon has its act together - like always.
The line that Amazon 'managed its supply chain well and can continue to fulfill' implies that it
always has done so, because, well... they're the best!
Quote:
Originally Posted by Kali Yuga
Thus, the real question is whether or not this holiday season will be critical in terms of determining long-term market share. And while Amazon can say "we're selling more Kindles than ever," without hard numbers it's very difficult to determine the true status of this horse race....
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Every year is always portrayed 'critical' in any market, so I don't think that will be likely to be resolved this year, but I've maintained almost from the beginning that if Amazon was so handily beating its competition, it wouldn't be afraid to release numbers to back up the claims.
They are obviously banking (not unreasonably) that by pounding home the party line that "we're the biggest, we're the best, we out-sell'em all" without proof that they
will do so at some point buy discouraging purchases of other units.
The "if you build it, they will come" school of hype.