SONY officially introduces the new line "Reader WIFI" @ $149 asking price

[Collin Moshman]

Looks like a great product.

[PKFFW]

Originally Posted by sabredog

Well The news is the new Sony PRS-T1 goes on sale next month here in Australia for a RRP of AU$179. that makes it damn competitive.

Kindle 3 Wifi - $159 available locally from Woolworths, DSE and BigW.
Kobo Touch - $169 available this month from Collins and Borders
Sony PRS-T1 - $179 available in October, from Sony and possibly Myer.

A pretty good choice now, compared to 18 months ago.

Very competitive. And almost not even worth buying it from the US when you consider shipping and handling.

Possibility of post Christmas sales discount will be interesting too.

[carpetmojo]

Originally Posted by PKFFW

Very competitive. And almost not even worth buying it from the US when you consider shipping and handling.

Possibility of post Christmas sales discount will be interesting too.

Not if you can't use it in Oz - PLUS see WendyH post in the Sony section :-

The Sony guy that I spoke to said that as there would still be no Sony Store in Australia, the only way you could obtain books via wifi in Australia was through Google or the library. He may have been wrong, but he said you could not buy books using the browser. I asked him about other stores such as Borders and Kobo, and he said you would not be able to buy from them using wifi.

I asked what was the point of having wifi then and he said you could use it to look things up about whatever you were reading e.g. find out more info about something written in the book.

In my opinion, a bullet in the Sony foot!

[carpetmojo]

Originally Posted by Kiwimick

Dont mean to be pedantic Carpetmojo but $150 is around £90 and 105 Euros

Yeah - I realised me math was wrong next day, but was too lazy , I assumed it would be spotted.

But, is any price too dear for this "new development " if the only place you can wifi books from is Sony bookstore, or a select number of [portals - see Wendy H in Sony section, whose actually handled one !] viz :-


"The Sony guy that I spoke to said that as there would still be no Sony Store in Australia, the only way you could obtain books via wifi in Australia was through Google or the library. He may have been wrong, but he said you could not buy books using the browser. I asked him about other stores such as Borders and Kobo, and he said you would not be able to buy from them using wifi.

I asked what was the point of having wifi then and he said you could use it to look things up about whatever you were reading e.g. find out more info about something written in the book."

So, if that's correct, I'm not getting one - its ridiculous.

So, score seems to be :
Sony 0 (after a lot of pointless effort?) : kindle --- (name your figure)

No wonder a guy in our computer shop said he would never ever advise anyone to buy a Sony computer .....'cos they didn't have a clue !

I thought that harsh at the time, but .............

[cfrizz]

Originally Posted by carpetmojo

"The Sony guy that I spoke to said that as there would still be no Sony Store in Australia, the only way you could obtain books via wifi in Australia was through Google or the library. He may have been wrong, but he said you could not buy books using the browser. I asked him about other stores such as Borders and Kobo, and he said you would not be able to buy from them using wifi.

I asked what was the point of having wifi then and he said you could use it to look things up about whatever you were reading e.g. find out more info about something written in the book."

So, if that's correct, I'm not getting one - its ridiculous.

So, score seems to be :
Sony 0 (after a lot of pointless effort?) : kindle --- (name your figure)

No wonder a guy in our computer shop said he would never ever advise anyone to buy a Sony computer .....'cos they didn't have a clue !

I thought that harsh at the time, but .............

Let me ask you this, are people able to purchase and download books from other stores with the Nook & Kindle? If not, then this shouldn't be held against Sony if the others don't allow it.

And certainly nothing is stopping them from doing it the old fashioned way via their computers.

[CommonReader]

carpetmojo,

don't get your knickers in a twist. Australia isn't the world's largest book market. It is completely reasonable for Sony to concentrate on other markets first. Apart from that there are other uses for Wi-Fi, even though I personally don't see Wi-Fi as important for an ebook reader anyway.
It isn't even established that you cannot use the functionality with other shops, though.
BTW, which other shops than Amazon's own can you use with the Kindle via Wi-Fi?

[Hellmark]

Originally Posted by bibahbuzemann

Sorry that's €149 including all taxes and delivery.

For the T1. The Kindle 3, which was also mentioned in the post I quoted, is €139.

Regardless of T1 or K3, you're still paying 19% VAT that is already figured into that price, where as the US price DOES NOT include tax. In the US, advertised prices generally never include tax, since it can vary so much depending on where you buy it. The reason for this is individual towns, counties, and states can have their own additional taxes. For instance, say I buy a case for my reader from Walmart for $20 plus tax in Chesterfield, Missouri, and my girlfriend buys the same one from a Walmart in O'Fallon, Missouri that is about 10 miles away in another county. We'll probably be paying two different amounts of tax, O'Fallon and Chesterfield have different tax rates, plus the counties have different tax rates as well. The final price could be a couple dollars different, due to the tax rates.

[Shopaholic]

Originally Posted by carpetmojo

The Sony guy that I spoke to said that as there would still be no Sony Store in Australia, the only way you could obtain books via wifi in Australia was through Google or the library. He may have been wrong, but he said you could not buy books using the browser. I asked him about other stores such as Borders and Kobo, and he said you would not be able to buy from them using wifi.

In my opinion, a bullet in the Sony foot!

Frankly, I don't put much stock into what the minimum wage workers in stores tell you. Half the time they have no idea what they're talking about and the other half they make stuff up based on their very limited knowledge. They don't have a clue and to slam the company and the new Reader because of what some peon in a store said says more about you than the company or their Reader.

[Pinecone]

Originally Posted by Arrghus

What evidence is there that this was ever the case? If Sony couldn't make enough to meet supposed 'demand' than they really need to make changes to the way they manufacturer their readers. You don't see the Kindle out of stock or 'temporarily unavailable' for huge stretches of the financial year. They do need to compete on price.

Sony does not make every part, so they are at the mercy of other suppliers, specifically the eInk screens.

So I stand by my statement, if I can get 100,000 eInk screens a year, and sell 100,000 readers a year at a higher price, I HAVE NO NEED TO COMPETE ON PRICE.

And with virtually every product out there, there are those that will buy strictly on price and those who will pay more for quality or perceived quality. Do you drive the cheapest car made? If not, why not? Do you think that BMW and Mercedes and Porsche need to come out with low cost models to compete strictly on price?

[Barty]

Originally Posted by Pinecone

Sony does not make every part, so they are at the mercy of other suppliers, specifically the eInk screens.

So I stand by my statement, if I can get 100,000 eInk screens a year, and sell 100,000 readers a year at a higher price, I HAVE NO NEED TO COMPETE ON PRICE.

And with virtually every product out there, there are those that will buy strictly on price and those who will pay more for quality or perceived quality. Do you drive the cheapest car made? If not, why not? Do you think that BMW and Mercedes and Porsche need to come out with low cost models to compete strictly on price?

Umm, they would if their cars drove more or less the same as a Toyota, and they only differentiate themselves on things like styling, fancy sound system, etc.

[melmac]

Originally Posted by CommonReader

carpetmojo,
don't get your knickers in a twist. Australia isn't the world's largest book market. It is completely reasonable for Sony to concentrate on other markets first.

We migh not be the biggest but we still exist if they are going to sell it here than it should be just as functional as it is in any of their other markets.

Originally Posted by CommonReader

BTW, which other shops than Amazon's own can you use with the Kindle via Wi-Fi?

Its not a matter of them allowing us access to other stores but access to any store. If they are not going to provide us with access to their own reader store than we should be allowed to access the A&R or Borders store this is who they partnered the 650 with.

Originally Posted by Shopaholic

Frankly, I don't put much stock into what the minimum wage workers in stores tell you. Half the time they have no idea what they're talking about and the other half they make stuff up based on their very limited knowledge. They don't have a clue and to slam the company and the new Reader because of what some peon in a store said says more about you than the company or their Reader.

It was not some sales pleb in a store it was the Sony employee at the official product launch, it would be fair to assume that they can get it right.

[tubemonkey]

Originally Posted by Pinecone

And with virtually every product out there, there are those that will buy strictly on price and those who will pay more for quality or perceived quality.

And those who can buy a high quality ereader for a very low price (KSO - $114).

[CazMar]

Originally Posted by sabredog

Well The news is the new Sony PRS-T1 goes on sale next month here in Australia for a RRP of AU$179. that makes it damn competitive.

Kindle 3 Wifi - $159 available locally from Woolworths, DSE and BigW.
Kobo Touch - $169 available this month from Collins and Borders
Sony PRS-T1 - $179 available in October, from Sony and possibly Myer.

A pretty good choice now, compared to 18 months ago.

Yes, and given that the Kobo Touch has managed to lose most of its market share and customer loyalty due to not allowing it to be sold in Australia for months I am fast becoming a new Sony fan!

[kennyc]

Originally Posted by SCION

Looking at the photos again, I just realized each one has a different color strip at the bottom. I'm liking the white one more and more with that silver strip to go with the silver buttons.

Well as you know, it really is all about style.

[kennyc]

Originally Posted by Shopaholic

Frankly, I don't put much stock into what the minimum wage workers in stores tell you. Half the time they have no idea what they're talking about and the other half they make stuff up based on their very limited knowledge. They don't have a clue and to slam the company and the new Reader because of what some peon in a store said says more about you than the company or their Reader.

And the other half of the time they are instructed in exactly what to say and fired if they don't (it has happened to my daughter).