PRS-650 Will Sony replace the official cover?

blu- · 01-25-2011, 12:41 PM

The PRSA-CL65—the cover—is being discontinued. I just had my ordered cancelled and was told as such. Every online retailer is out of them too.

Should I wait for Sony to release a new compatible cover? I've checked the alternatives and really only like the Sony one—especially with the light.

Snassek · 01-25-2011, 01:39 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by blu-

The PRSA-CL65—the cover—is being discontinued. I just had my ordered cancelled and was told as such. Every online retailer is out of them too.

Should I wait for Sony to release a new compatible cover? I've checked the alternatives and really only like the Sony one—especially with the light.

Seems odd. I have been looking for an original Sony cover too since I just got my 650 recently.

porkupan · 01-25-2011, 02:31 PM

Sony appears to have supply problems for some reason, not being able to manufacture or stock enough readers AND accessories to meet the current online demand. While the reader shortage can be weakly explained by the scarcity of Pearl screens, the cover shortage is rather inexcusable.

From the packaging of the new black 650 arriving from Sony these days it is obvious that a new manufacturing run of PRS650BC has been commenced (the internal packaging is different from the original produced 5 months ago). Why Sony's inventory system doesn't foresee shortages of accessories - that is a mystery to me. Perhaps no one at Sony expected the readers to be as popular as they turned out to be. It is also possible that the retail channel doesn't appear to be moving the merchandise even though all the online outlets have ran out. Since the Sony reader sales are mostly retail, the inventory system may not react properly to online shortages.

The online-retail imbalance may have been caused by excessive interest in Sony readers among gray market exporters. From my observations in the U.S. there is not much excitement about the readers among the general public. I do not see them heavily advertised or pushed by any popular retail outlets (nothing compared to Kindle, nook and even Kobo). So it is possible that the bulk of U.S. sales is actually finding its way overseas via gray market channels. If this is so, the end customers are most probably not in any way interested in Sony ebook store, so the product line appears to be ultimately unsuccessful.

mcrmama · 01-25-2011, 04:30 PM

Interesting. I don't think it is just online that is selling out. All the stores here are sold out of Sony, both the readers and accessories. From the conversations I had with people at different stores, I was told that when they got them in, they could only get 6-7 of them at a time, and they were flying out of the store and were very popular right now. When I bought mine, it was the last one in 4 stores I checked. I looked again this week for my mil and there are none to be found.

david_e · 01-25-2011, 08:48 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by blu-

The PRSA-CL65—the cover—is being discontinued. I just had my ordered cancelled and was told as such. Every online retailer is out of them too.

Should I wait for Sony to release a new compatible cover? I've checked the alternatives and really only like the Sony one—especially with the light.

Was your order placed with Sony or another retailer?

blu- · 01-26-2011, 01:17 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by david_e

Was your order placed with Sony or another retailer?

At Vanns.com. It's been OOS at Sony for a while.

01-25-2011, 12:41 PM	#1
blu- Enthusiast Posts: 43 Karma: 25968 Join Date: Nov 2010 Device: prs 650	Will Sony replace the official cover? The PRSA-CL65—the cover—is being discontinued. I just had my ordered cancelled and was told as such. Every online retailer is out of them too. Should I wait for Sony to release a new compatible cover? I've checked the alternatives and really only like the Sony one—especially with the light.

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01-25-2011, 02:31 PM	#3
porkupan Fanatic Posts: 556 Karma: 1057213 Join Date: Sep 2006 Location: North Eastern U.S. Device: Sony Reader	Sony appears to have supply problems for some reason, not being able to manufacture or stock enough readers AND accessories to meet the current online demand. While the reader shortage can be weakly explained by the scarcity of Pearl screens, the cover shortage is rather inexcusable. From the packaging of the new black 650 arriving from Sony these days it is obvious that a new manufacturing run of PRS650BC has been commenced (the internal packaging is different from the original produced 5 months ago). Why Sony's inventory system doesn't foresee shortages of accessories - that is a mystery to me. Perhaps no one at Sony expected the readers to be as popular as they turned out to be. It is also possible that the retail channel doesn't appear to be moving the merchandise even though all the online outlets have ran out. Since the Sony reader sales are mostly retail, the inventory system may not react properly to online shortages. The online-retail imbalance may have been caused by excessive interest in Sony readers among gray market exporters. From my observations in the U.S. there is not much excitement about the readers among the general public. I do not see them heavily advertised or pushed by any popular retail outlets (nothing compared to Kindle, nook and even Kobo). So it is possible that the bulk of U.S. sales is actually finding its way overseas via gray market channels. If this is so, the end customers are most probably not in any way interested in Sony ebook store, so the product line appears to be ultimately unsuccessful.

01-25-2011, 04:30 PM	#4
mcrmama Addict Posts: 239 Karma: 16806 Join Date: Jul 2010 Device: Kobo Aura One	Interesting. I don't think it is just online that is selling out. All the stores here are sold out of Sony, both the readers and accessories. From the conversations I had with people at different stores, I was told that when they got them in, they could only get 6-7 of them at a time, and they were flying out of the store and were very popular right now. When I bought mine, it was the last one in 4 stores I checked. I looked again this week for my mil and there are none to be found.

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