[fjtorres]

The good-news for bargain-focused buyers is that Ebook reader prices *are* dropping.
A lot of the drop is coming at the low end and its not as noticeable because the drops are coming in the form of new products more than as outright price drops on existing product.
(Thus, the Kobo 6" reader came in at US$150 rather than the more common $199 and the Pandigital 7" color LCD Novel came in at $170-199--some added discount coupons to the intro pricing to go as low as $129--instead of the $259-299 typical of comparable MIDs.)

Still, existing product *is* dropping in price; the Sony PRS-300 has dropped from $229 to $149 (lower on the occasional sale), the PRS-600 has dropped to $199 and the PRS 900 has dropped to $299-349. The Aluratech Libre and the Jetbooks have been seen regularly (on sale) in the $99-129 range.

The Nook is currently under a promotion that includes a $50 gift card (making the effective price $209) and the rumor mill is they will have a new model out shortly that will be cheaper than the existing model.

As a rule, discounting on existing product paves the way for new products to follow, so we can expect to see significant activity in the sub-$199 range moving forward.

So far, Kindle2 has provided the pricing benchmark at $259 which other products are priced against (either higher or lower); hence Nook with comparable features came in at the same price while leaner-featured products (Sony PRS-600, Kobo) tend to be cheaper and higher-spec products (Sony PRS-900, Pocketbook 302, BeBook Neo, etc) can go to the $300+ range. If the rumored new Kindle, allegedly due in August, should come in at a lower price for the same feature set (which the Nook deal seems to presage) then the whole pricing structure is going to have to be rebuilt.

I'd say that anybody in the market for a mid-range reader (read: kindle2-like) that can *afford* to wait til sept-oct, do so. Anybody looking for a sub-$100 *list price* reader will have a longer wait but I expect we *will* see at least one Black Friday deal hit deep in that range (Say, $49-79). (And, of course; $99-129 will be seen more often, moving forward). Odds are a price structure shakedown *is* coming.

If you can't afford to wait, then look to the sales going on regularly these days (Best Buy, Newegg, J&R, among others) to see if an acceptable reader hits the desired price point. There are quite a few competent readers in the sub $200 range and more are moving that way every day.

Moving forward, pricing *will* go down; the real question is whether to wait or jump now and start ebook reading sooner. Everybody will have their own private answer to that.