Quote:
Originally Posted by ricou
Well I am less than confident for this tool.
For casual readers like me who only want a large screen reader, then the added functions are unnecessary and do not justify the extra cost. The skiff looks better for my need, but what if kindle decides to drop the price of its DX ? For let’s see 399£ ? At that price its small flaws would not matter anymore, at least not to me ;-)
In addition, competition on the 9.7 inch segment will be fierce. Samsung announced a new line of readers (including a 9.7). that will be cheaper. I think that the other major player might also be interested in the 9.7 segment.
For business users it is even worse !
Competition comes from tablet PC, edge, and most of all netbooks (I cannot see why a business reader would like a QUE as opposed to a netbook for business AND a reader for leisure). OK we have the subscriptions to morning papers, but even though the more I read about this reader, the more I think that bad positioning will be its downfall.
Personally I will look elsewhere (anything with the minimum functionalities and better price tag).
But I would not be surprised if Amazon caught anyone unaware with either a new product (with color, as hinted), or a significant price drop in price for it DX (remember Amazon core business is books, I do not think they care about losing money for the readers, since they make it up with online books sales, they should even give away readers :-). See what they are doing with video game. PS3 is sold at a loss, but they know that the average customer will purchase at least 10 games, and pricey accessories.
Anyway, future does not look bright for QUE (or for irex for that matter, with their future dr800 that looks outdated already).
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I am sure that Amazon will drop the price for the DX this year. But even then, the DX is much bigger than it should be, with that giant keyboard at the bottom. That also makes it heavier. So, if Amazon goes down to $350 and improves its software, I would get the DX, but at 450 or 420 I would still prefer the Que. As for the new color readers, we are talking early next year, and probably 6" screens only in the beginning. That doesn't interest me. Other 9.7" black and white are said to appear after September only.
Amazon might take the road of subsidizing the Kindles, but they won't do it lightly. At the moment they are making good money on them. The fact that Amazon has not dropped the price for the DX yet shows 2 things. As far as the Que is concerned they probably believe that the Que is so much more advanced, a cheaper price wouldn't help much. And Amazon also feels that the 9.7" readers from other companies are still so far away that they can get full price for the DX for some time to come.