Quote:
Originally Posted by Solicitous
I disagree. If you look at this 'price war' for lack of a better phrase it is between Amazon and B&N, with Sony playing a distant third. All other ereader companies are doing business as usual. If those three players are selling their readers at a loss this pricing will only be short term as it wont be able to be sustained in the long term.
Where the strength in Astak is in my opinion is; personalised support, quality product and an obvious desire to sell a product that consumers want. To me that is worth the extra money. The freedom to buy my books from where I want, the freedom to structure my books the way I want, the freedom to install updates if and when I want. You can't put a price on that. I strongly believe buying from Astak you get freedom, buying from one of the big players and you get locked into their will and ways.
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Dear All:
Yes, where the price war leaves Astak is questionable. On the one hand, we have the only true online friendly customer interface, the products are always quality and technically close to excellent, and they are essentially jammed with features that people love. The warranty is well honored and we go out of our way to cheat nobody. You can buy from our bookstore or any of 300 others. Astak does listen and does try to make decisions based on MR comment.
The question is: will this be enough? Think of the EZ Reader PLUS. Suppose that B&N fires back in the war with Amazon and sells the NOOK at $99. Maybe Amazon reciprocates and they both sell at $99. What does Astak do? Will an EZ Reader PLUS be able to sell at $219 or even $199 against this onslaught? Yes, there will be some MR people who truly value Astak and realize the PLUS is a far faster, lighter, and better product... but how many? 20, 50, 100 people?
These are not easy times for an Astak!