Interesting piece on failure of Sony to market its ereaders

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by MasterGame

Or, perhaps Sony just didn't make many of them.

I think a lot of people just like the 650.

[CommonReader]

Originally Posted by boxcorner

Amazon is already selling e-readers in Germany and France:

amazon.de
amazon.fr

What do you mean by manipulation?

Amazon is selling the Kindle in Germany but they don't have any German content to sell with it. While it's no problem to buy most recently published books as epubs at various shops, Amazon basically doesn't have any books in German at all. Apparently Amazon isn't able to conclude any licensing deals on their own terms with the large publishing houses. Apart from brands created by large book chains like the Oyo-Reader of the Thalia chain (comparable to the FNAC-Reader in France) Sony readers are the only ones widely on display both in book stores as well as in department stores and the large retail markets for electronic products.

[Aurora W]

Originally Posted by PapaLovesMambo

Sony makes brilliant product and has the marketing savvy of the Edsel production team. .

A thousand times THIS.

I've been a somewhat loyal Sony buyer/user for longer than I should admit in public, and this has always been one of my gripes with them. Wonderful, brilliant, almost always ahead of everyone else hardware - with no marketing, little to no accessories, and the software... (aye, the software).

And yet, I still buy the Sony. My laptop has never given me issues. My eReaders have been a joy - and have alway impressed those I show them to. And we still have a functioning miniDisc recorder around here somewhere...

[astra]

Originally Posted by boxcorner

Sony owners are always swift to criticise Sony for it's lacklustre marketing. Great product, but lousy marketing. I'd be rich if I gained a dollar, each time I read something negative like that. However, I think this constant stream of negative rhetoric is counter-productive. It must be sweet music for Amazon's ears.

So, you think that Amazon actually reads what we post over here? So, should Sony? Should not Sony make some conclusions?

Sure, Sony could do better - a lot better. However, criticising something negatively without offering positive alternatives is easy, destroying something doesn't require much effort; creating and nurturing something requires more careful thought and patience. Complaining is easy; putting things right isn't always quite so simple.

Instead of a constant barrage of negative comments, may I suggest that we offer Sony a little more more encouragement, and some positive suggestions? By all means mention negative things, but try also to emphasise what is positive.

Rather than sarcastically saying things like, "improve their lousy marketing", "actually create a media coverage presence", try to be a little more constructive. Remember, marketing isn't just about advertising, or after-sales-support. There's lots more to it than that.

Why not suggest some new ideas of things that Sony could do to improve its marketing? List your ideas, but try to be specific, rather than generalise. How would you advertise their products? Suggest ways of improving things, things that Sony is already doing right, but that could be done better. Don't just point out what needs to be done, but explain how it should be done. Provide a clear summary of the key points. Perhaps Sony will take up, and act on some of your ideas. Who knows? Nothing ventured, nothing gained.

Your post is sorta funny.

What you are proposing is that we, some of us poor people with salaries below £20K, do Sony's job???
By buying Sony Reader for premium price we have already supported a multi-billion corporation. By pointing out that they have next to no marketing for the reader, we give plenty of clues to Sony that they have to reconsider their position and talk to their marketing team that I am sure is being paid much higher salaries to do their job.

[doreenjoy]

I don't think Sony fails to market *all* of their products. I can hardly turn on my TV without seeing a Playstation ad.

IMO Sony deliberately chooses where to put their marketing dollars. They don't have the capability of catching up to Kindle no matter how much money they throw at the Reader, simply because Amazon can put the Kindle right in front of the target audience. I don't think Sony will abandon the Reader line, but I think they're settling for the number 2 or 3 slot.

[SeaBookGuy]

At Borders, I once saw a guy come up to the display, stating that he was "about to get a Kindle" and thought he could see one "live" first. The sales person explained that Kindles are only available online; you don't get to try them first. The fellow seemed discouraged by that, and none-too-thrilled by their non-library compatibility (which had come up in the conversation as well).

[EatingPie]

Originally Posted by boxcorner

Rather than sarcastically saying things like, "improve their lousy marketing", "actually create a media coverage presence", try to be a little more constructive. Remember, marketing isn't just about advertising, or after-sales-support. There's lots more to it than that.

Here's my first try:

Sony, the inventors of lousy marketing bring you the.... Oh nevermind! We're lousy at marketing, remember?

Why not suggest some new ideas of things that Sony could do to improve its marketing?...

I think the total lack of any advertising is truly a major issue, which everyone here notices. But Sony's financial commitment to the Readers just isn't a huge priority. Consider that the PRS-505 still cannot right justify an ePUB (yes, that's Adobe's fault, but Sony doesn't care enough to get it fixed). As a software engineer, I know I could fix the problem within a few weeks of walking cold into the source code, and that would cost a lot less than any advertising campaign at all (even my year's salary would be less).

Sony is certainly capable of great advertisements: the PS3 ads have moved beyond awesome these days! But that's the money. Regardless, here's a couple of real tries...

Sony, the inventors of the e-Reader, bring you the most book-like experience in the world!

[A person walks into a B&N, then a Borders, then a Mom&Pop store] Voiceover: You can buy a book anywhere! But not with an Amazon Kindle! If they don't have it, you can't read it.

I realize Sony cannot read B&N books without prior liberation, but you can bet that if they're actually reading this post, they've already got that in the works.

[Person walks into a library.] There are over 1,000,000 libraries in the United States. How many books is that? [Shot of shelves and shelves and shelves.] Bring your Sony Reader... but leave your Kindle!

But like I said. A commercial... ANY commercial... would probably do!

-Pie

[elcreative]

And why the hell would Sony be working on a years old and discontinued unit... do you expect to have a three year old car fitted with a hybrid system because the manufacturer now makes one?

Cool advertising idea... hey don't bother with any new products, we're going to change an old item because some people want full justification rather than left... and yes, you do mean full justification as right means a jagged left-edge and straight right which is a real pain to read...

[lilac_jive]

Just thought I'd point out that Sony is sponsoring this year's goodreads best books of the year vote.

[Bookworm_Girl]

Originally Posted by lilac_jive

Just thought I'd point out that Sony is sponsoring this year's goodreads best books of the year vote.

That's interesting, lilac_jive! I suppose it makes sense since Sony has integrated goodreads reviews into their ebookstore now.

[SeaBookGuy]

I've written a lot of Goodreads reviews, I'll have to go take a look to see if any of mine show up!

Sometimes, there may be few if any as the ebook needs to be manually linked to the main book entry by librarians to get the reviews from all editions to appear.

[bevdeforges]

Originally Posted by boxcorner

Amazon is already selling e-readers in Germany and France:

amazon.de
amazon.fr

What do you mean by manipulation?

Oddly enough, when I click on your amazon.fr link, I get a list of Sony readers available for sale through Amazon vendors. If you want to buy a Kindle here in France, you have to go to the US Amazon site to do so (though they were featuring the Kindle on the front page of the French site for a while).

As someone else mentioned, the big issue is content. I've heard American Kindle customers moan about the lack of French or German titles from Amazon. French ebooks are now available primarily through FNAC, Darty and possibly a few other locations - though the publishers are sticking to their p-book pricing and privileges - and primarily in epub editions. And in checking out the availability of titles for Kindle over here, you run into geographical restrictions, additional costs (mostly VAT related) and the lack of access to the UK Kindle site for those of us "on the Continent."

OK, the Agency Model really screwed things up for us anglophones living in Europe and looking for ready access to English language reading material - but one huge advantage of the Sony reader is that the geographical orientation of the device is fairly easily overcome. Obviously, that's not exactly a feature Sony can aggressively market, but for me, at least, it's significant.

Had Amazon opened its UK based Kindle store to the rest of Europe when WH Smith and Waterstones were closing theirs off to us, I probably would be regretting my Sony purchase. But add me to the list of those who don't want wireless capability for my reader. I hardly need the temptation to impulse buy books, plus, without having to connect my reader to the computer now and then, I know I would completely forget to charge it (as happens regularly with my mobile phone).

Sony doesn't really market many of its standard electronic products - at least not over here. They still seem to sell well enough that folks (over here at least) are buying them.

[Bic]

Originally Posted by SeaBookGuy

At Borders, I once saw a guy come up to the display, stating that he was "about to get a Kindle" and thought he could see one "live" first. The sales person explained that Kindles are only available online; you don't get to try them first. The fellow seemed discouraged by that, and none-too-thrilled by their non-library compatibility (which had come up in the conversation as well).

Of course they lied about only buying Kindles on line, since best buy, target, and staples all carry them. However, the Kindle WiFi is currently sold out (acc. to Amazon's web page and responses from many target/staples places).

[natasha_fawn]

Originally Posted by Bic

Of course they lied about only buying Kindles on line, since best buy, target, and staples all carry them. However, the Kindle WiFi is currently sold out (acc. to Amazon's web page and responses from many target/staples places).

True, but I haven't once seen a Kindle demo that wasn't the crippled version that cycles through a few advertising images (and often completely broken). This seems like a (comparatively minor) failure of Amazon's marketing.

[EatingPie]

Originally Posted by elcreative

And why the hell would Sony be working on a years old and discontinued unit... do you expect to have a three year old car fitted with a hybrid system because the manufacturer now makes one?

Cool advertising idea... hey don't bother with any new products, we're going to change an old item because some people want full justification rather than left... and yes, you do mean full justification as right means a jagged left-edge and straight right which is a real pain to read...

Sheesh.

Why do Apple and Microsoft support years-old units? Leopard runs on my 6 year old PPC Mac, for example, and I still get updates. How about non-OS related firmware updates (hardware specific) on Macs, HPs, Dells and Gateways? These fix bugs related to hardware components, and they can happen even 5 years into a product cycle. (The Apple IIe was supported for 10 years, the longest supported computer in history.)

Reason #1: customers want products that last, and stay up-to-date. When you buy any computer component, you are not locked in to a specific OS or Software, and you can get updates and bug fixes. A Reader is no different.

Reason #2: If Sony were to offer better software support for the PRS-505 and PRS-600, I would be more likely to recommend a current model because I know Sony supports its customers.

I have only owned Sony Readers, from the PRS-500, to the 600 to the 650. But I recommend the Kindle to almost anyone who asks for two reasons: Amazon is a "less techie" and easier to buy books device, and Sony does not (generally) software update their Readers.

Right now, the only thing holding me to Sony is their LRF format. I read a random ePUb once in a while, and every time I consider the rendering so poor that it's completely un-book-like, unpolished, and unprofessional. And 100% fixable with absolutely minimal effort.

And to nail this one to the wall, they don't even have ePUB working right on the PRS-600 and PRS-300, which were their primary Readers through Summer 2010. Even if you don't expect them to support long discontinued hardware, they darn well should be supporting hardware that's less than 6 months old.

-Pie