Walmart PRS-505 at $268.98

[HarryT]

Increasing awareness of your product is good, but it can turn around and damage your reputation if you're then unable to supply the product that your customers are demanding. I think Sony need to be careful not to let demand so far outstrip their supply capabilities that people will get fed up with waiting.

[zelda_pinwheel]

hm. that's a good point. it does seem surprising, taking that possibility into account, that sony would launch distribution through a new vendor at a time when it's already impossible to satisfy current customer demand. especially a vendor with as many sales points as wallmart apparently has. maybe they know something we don't ? maybe they think unavailability will just make people crazier to get one, when they are finally available ? maybe they're a bit stupider than we give them credit for ? i don't know...

however, regardless of that, i *still* think more exposure to the general public is a good thing. this ploy may backfire on *sony*, however, it must surely still result in more people knowing about at the least the 505 and in theory from there they could learn about the Gen3 and the Iliad and the others, and even if they don't buy a sony maybe they'll buy something else instead (if they want it too badly to wait, and one of the others is in stock...).

what's the expression, "there's no such thing as bad publicity" ? i think the ebook market is still too much of a niche, it needs to get out in the open.

[dhbailey]

Originally Posted by zelda_pinwheel

however (sorry about the off-topicness...), the fact that a big "mainstream" chain is carrying the 505 is probably good news for public awareness as well as easier distribution. i only wish it were a different chain (do you have other ones as big as that ?).

The U.S. doesn't have other chains which are as big a part of the public consciousness as Walmart. It is huge on the radar of people who care about workers' rights and decent pay, it is huge on the radar of people who don't have much money to spend and want/need the lowest prices possible, and it is huge on the radar of people who want the convenience of one-stop shopping for groceries, drug prescriptions, clothing, electronics, etc.

The next closest as far as I can see is Target, which probably would suffer under the same close scrutiny that Walmart suffers under, as far as workers' rights and pay go. It's impossible to keep prices that low and not be underpaying someone (or a whole lot of someones) along the way. But so far Target has remained just outside the radar of the groups who love to hate Walmart.

So for the Sony Reader to be offered by Walmart really does place it potentially in front of the largest possible public.

So like it or hate it, Walmart is a huge presence.

[DrMoze]

Originally Posted by HarryT

Increasing awareness of your product is good, but it can turn around and damage your reputation if you're then unable to supply the product that your customers are demanding. I think Sony need to be careful not to let demand so far outstrip their supply capabilities that people will get fed up with waiting.

That reasoning doesn't seem to apply to the Nintendo Wii. Still in short supply about 1.5 years after release, and they sell every one that appears on shelves immediately.

[mjh215]

DrMoze: Yeah, but to be fair I think half of those Wii's are in garages still in the box from people trying to make money off of artificially inflating the value.

-MJ

[MerLock]

From what I know, not many people looked into buying and reselling the wii because in al honestly, not many people thought it was going to be a hit.

I think the ones people were going for resales was the ps3 but so far that's been a bust.

[growat]

Hey guys,

Is it just me, or is one of the major discoveries here that someone is selling the PRS-505 for less than $300? I desperately want the 505, but I am a dedicated E commerce deal-hunter. This is the first time I've seen anyone selling the 505 for less than 3 C's. No tax and free shipping.
Am I wrong?

Graham

[NatCh]

I think you'll pay sales tax on it, actually, that's usually how it works when the retailer has a presence in your home state.

[Taylor514ce]

Originally Posted by growat

Hey guys,

Is it just me, or is one of the major discoveries here that someone is selling the PRS-505 for less than $300? I desperately want the 505, but I am a dedicated E commerce deal-hunter. This is the first time I've seen anyone selling the 505 for less than 3 C's. No tax and free shipping.
Am I wrong?

Graham

You're wrong. A few online retailers routinely sell it for around the same price point, around $268.00. Check Pricegrabber.com.

[brewt]

I'm sure we're not supposed to niggle about these things, but:

Key Features:
....
# Operating system: Windows XP (Ome Edition/Professional, Media Center Edition, Media Center Edition 2004, Media Center Edition 2005) and Windows Vista (Home Basic, Home Premium, Business, Ultimate)
# Processor: 800mhz Intel Celeron class processor or better RAM
# Requires 128 MB minimum hard drive with 20 MB minimum available hard drive space


Let me carry on about this a while:

Comes with XP AND Vista, an 800mHz Celeron, and somehow we're supposed to attach a 128 MB hard drive!





-bjc

[thorswitch]

Originally Posted by dhbailey

Sony needs to hire a better Vice President In Charge of Making Sure Everybody On the Planet Knows About Sony Products.

Oh man, that reminds me of my old Amiga days! We had an Amiga Users Group that got together periodically, and one of our favourite topics for discussion was how we'd market the Amiga if we had the chance. We eventually - and only jokingly - "decided" that what was needed was an "armed takeover" of the Commodore marketing department so we could get in there and market the durn thing effectively....


I do have to give Sony kudos on one thing: While the Wal-Mart price is obviously better (and I wish I'd known about it before I bought my Reader,) when I first went to the Sony site to order mine, it cost $329. I placed the order on Friday. Shipping was included, so I was able to get it sent next-business-day by FedEx and Monday morning had my great new toy in my hands.

Later that day, I found out that, over the weekend, they'd dropped the price by $30. Figuring that they worst they could do would be to say "no," I called them up to ask if I could get a refund since, if I'd just waited over the weekend I'd've gotten the lower price, and without any hassle the rep got her manager to approve it and refunded the charge. I'd thought I'd be doing good if I could maybe get them to offer half of the difference in a store credit or something like that, but they just flat out gave me the refund (including a refund on the tax for that part of the cost.)

Anyway, it's not all that often when I run into good customer service, so I figured I'd share this one

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by thorswitch

Oh man, that reminds me of my old Amiga days! We had an Amiga Users Group that got together periodically, and one of our favourite topics for discussion was how we'd market the Amiga if we had the chance. We eventually - and only jokingly - "decided" that what was needed was an "armed takeover" of the Commodore marketing department so we could get in there and market the durn thing effectively....

I used to belong ot the Boston Computer Society's Amiga User Group. We did get a guest from the engineering department come and tell us that they had the next generation Amiga all ready to go but that the higher ups didn't allow them to relace it. Instead they released the Amiga 4000. The next gen Amiga would have been a pretty significant system and had the higher-ups know what they were doing, the MAC would have been crushed easily.

[nrapallo]

Originally Posted by JSWolf

I used to belong ot the Boston Computer Society's Amiga User Group. We did get a guest from the engineering department come and tell us that they had the next generation Amiga all ready to go but that the higher ups didn't allow them to relace it. Instead they released the Amiga 4000. The next gen Amiga would have been a pretty significant system and had the higher-ups know what they were doing, the MAC would have been crushed easily.

Ahhh... that brings back fond memories of my Amiga days...

A1000 with my Comspec 10MB HardDrive full of PD programs from Fred Fish...

A3000 with a very stable/tightly coded Multitasking OS that was light-years ahead anything else out there! I was raytracing while surfing the 'net using a 2400 baud GVC modem...

I belonged to the Toronto Pet Users' Group (TPUG) and the Amigans were a significant presence there, during the Amiga's heyday! We even had a (bi-)monthly magazine for a while, TPUG Magazine, then The Transcator Magazine! I still have most of my issues...

But alas that inept Marketing team (and even worst the higher ups)! RIP Amiga!

Yes, fond memories of a brilliant piece of hardware, unfortunately now orphaned (somewhat like my REB 1200 )!

[RickyMaveety]

Originally Posted by dhbailey

That's a good thing -- it would be even better if they put them in their stores, but at least being on Walmart.com they will have a bigger exposure than before. I'm getting tired of people walking up to me and asking me "Oh, is that a Kindle?!? Neat!" Then I have to go into a lengthy explanation of how it's the Sony, which has a better form factor and which came out first and which I think is better, blah blah blah.

Sony needs to hire a better Vice President In Charge of Making Sure Everybody On the Planet Knows About Sony Products.

They do have them in our local WalMart ... I know I saw them there.