Sony PRS-600 Listed At $100 [Selling Error Now Corrected]

[JSWolf]

We shall find out on Monday if orders for the $100 600s will be cancelled or allow to go through. I am hoping they do go through. The covers are on sale at Borders and Sonystyle for $15.
K

[Ajax]

I'm hopeful that they will go through since they still haven't canceled mine, and the charge is still sitting in my bank account.

In my experience with Dell price mistakes they never even charged my card... but Dell has a lot more experience with making huge price mistakes than Borders.

[luqmaninbmore]

Originally Posted by advocate2

Koland,

How kind of you to trash the Sony readers. My only question to you is: How many Library ebooks have you borrowed on your Kindle? I've owned the Sony 505, 600, and 900 and never had a problem with any of them. I also read on average one library ebook a week on my Sony. That's a savings of about $500 a year. Enjoy your Kindle. I sold my DX a month after I bought it and got fed up with being locked into Amazon.

I'm reading a library book on my DX right now. I had to use a script to turn on the flag, but it was quicker and easier to do that and then copy over via USB than it would have been to fire up digital editions, download the file and copy it across (especially given how buggy ADE can be). I'm not knocking the Sony Reader; a PRS-500 was my first dedicated device and I have since passed it on to my daughter. I also owned a PRS-700 for quite a while until it sat collecting dust after I bought my Pocketbook 360. Heck, I might go out and buy the 600 now that they have such a low price; I like the tap-tap dictionary function and the ability to write on the screen. But it is fairly easy to use library books on the kindle, provided your library stacks Mobipocket library books.

Luqman

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by luqmaninbmore

I'm reading a library book on my DX right now. I had to use a script to turn on the flag, but it was quicker and easier to do that and then copy over via USB than it would have been to fire up digital editions, download the file and copy it across (especially given how buggy ADE can be). I'm not knocking the Sony Reader; a PRS-500 was my first dedicated device and I have since passed it on to my daughter. I also owned a PRS-700 for quite a while until it sat collecting dust after I bought my Pocketbook 360. Heck, I might go out and buy the 600 now that they have such a low price; I like the tap-tap dictionary function and the ability to write on the screen. But it is fairly easy to use library books on the kindle, provided your library stacks Mobipocket library books.

Luqman

But, libraries are moving away from Mobipocket and going ePub. So finding new eBooks at the library you can read will be very difficult.

[Harmon]

Originally Posted by Spiffy

Yeah, I think a lot depends on your needs.

Me, I'm happy when I can access an eBook as a file on my PC, copy it onto an SD card, and stick it in an eBook reader SD slot. Or lately, simply hooking up a USB cable and doing a push with Calibre. But other people want the whole eBook store integration angle, and fancy software to control it. They're iTunes indoctrinated, you might say, and so that's the model they want to follow with their device control/usage. Not me, so that's why the Sony software issues don't bother me. I care FAR more about what the screen looks like, and how easily accessible the page turning controls are on an ebook reader, than I do anything else.

What Sony doesn't do is play well - or at all - with iPad. In part, that involves exactly what you observe about bookstore integration. But for some reason, Sony isn't really interested in selling ebooks - and by extension ebook readers - to Apple users.

[glowhappy]

Originally Posted by peitsao

Update on PRS600 price--now Sony is selling it for $199 as well. Wonder if they are planning to bring out a newer model and need to clear out old stock....

SOAB!! I just got my reader full price last week, I guess its going back! or maybe they will just do a price adjustment for me

[Spiffy]

Originally Posted by Harmon

What Sony doesn't do is play well - or at all - with iPad. In part, that involves exactly what you observe about bookstore integration. But for some reason, Sony isn't really interested in selling ebooks - and by extension ebook readers - to Apple users.

A lot of things don't "play nice" with iPad. I am assuming here that you are talking about Sony not having their own Kindle-for-iPad-like Application for the iPad to read books downloaded from the Sony store, because if you are simply talking about hooking a Sony Reader up directly to an iPad and getting some kind of interoperability... well... almost nothing does THAT. Apple made sure of it.

What's not clear in this case is whether or not Sony is missing an opportunity that is realistic for them. I'm not sure they are. They're primarily in the hardware business. Amazon is primarily in the content business. So "Kindle for iPad" makes sense. Amazon's selling physical Kindles in the side business, even if its become a profitable one. Not so for Sony. In their case, the eBook store is the side business, not the hardware. Building custom apps around the ebook store seems a bit out of their expertise (and maybe a waste of time).

[Maggie Leung]

Originally Posted by Spiffy

A lot of things don't "play nice" with iPad. *I am assuming here that you are talking about Sony not having their own Kindle-for-iPad-like Application for the iPad to read books downloaded from the Sony store, because if you are simply talking about hooking a Sony Reader up directly to an iPad and getting some kind of interoperability... well... almost nothing does THAT. *Apple made sure of it.

What's not clear in this case is whether or not Sony is missing an opportunity that is realistic for them. *I'm not sure they are. *They're primarily in the hardware business. *Amazon is primarily in the content business. *So "Kindle for iPad" makes sense. *Amazon's selling physical Kindles in the side business, even if its become a profitable one. *Not so for Sony. *In their case, the eBook store is the side business, not the hardware. *Building custom apps around the ebook store seems a bit out of their expertise (and maybe a waste of time).

Seems that having your books accessible on other devices helps sell hardware. A good number of Amazon Kindle forum posters start reading on iPhones and iPod Touches, then buy a Kindle. Maybe Sony doesn't care about such sales in the scheme of things.

[afa]

If Sony really is viewing their eBookstore as nothing more than an add-on to the Readers, they need to rethink their strategy. Content is the way to go.

Don't forget that the real reason for the massive success of the iPhone is not the hardware (which, touch screen aside, is middle-of-the-pack) but the ease with which you can access and manage your content, particularly as pertains to media and 'apps'. The way in which iPhone integrates with iTunes Store is the reason the majority of people enjoy the iPhone experience.

And the fact that Apple has created a closed ecosystem whereby you have to get said content through them is the reason iPhone (and maybe soon iPad?) is arguably their most important product.

Similarly, a large part of the Kindle's success is the integration of Hardware and Market Place. It's not something as simple as marketing. Sony is a giant multi-billion dollar corporation that has been around for a lot longer than Amazon, so it's not like they don't know how to market their products. The advantage Amazon has is, as someone pointed out above, that being a content provider is exactly what they do, and they're good at it.

All these large companies have struggled to really make an impact on the Internet. They're too stuck in their old ways. It's not a coincidence that the largest and most successful online businesses (from Google to eBay to Amazon) are companies that came about barely 15 years ago; companies for whom the Internet is their business, and not an afterthought.

*EDIT*
Getting back to the original topic, what do you guys think is the better deal - the Touch for $199, or the upcoming Kobo Reader for $149?

On the one hand, the Sony is $50 more. On the other, it does have some more features. Touch screen, built-in dictionary, annotations/note-taking, etc. Not to mention the fact that Sony is a bigger and more recognisable brand, and possibly might have better product support (though I'm not sure how good Kobo may be). But, at $149, the Kobo is easily the cheapest 6" e-Ink reader, and does seem like a bargain.

Any thoughts?

[luqmaninbmore]

Originally Posted by JSWolf

But, libraries are moving away from Mobipocket and going ePub. So finding new eBooks at the library you can read will be very difficult.

Any evidence for this claim? I belong to two different local libraries with strong Mobi collections. New books are added frequently.

Luqman

[Ajax]

As of right now still no cancellation and the Black model which was showing backordered is now back to usually ships within 24 hours.

[DannyElfman]

Let's pray together

[Nate the great]

Originally Posted by afa

*EDIT*
Getting back to the original topic, what do you guys think is the better deal - the Touch for $199, or the upcoming Kobo Reader for $149?

On the one hand, the Sony is $50 more. On the other, it does have some more features. Touch screen, built-in dictionary, annotations/note-taking, etc. Not to mention the fact that Sony is a bigger and more recognisable brand, and possibly might have better product support (though I'm not sure how good Kobo may be). But, at $149, the Kobo is easily the cheapest 6" e-Ink reader, and does seem like a bargain.

Any thoughts?

I would rcommend the Touch. The Kobo e-reader has a bunch of teething problems.

[iandix]

I just checked my order of a black unit and it says

On Backorder

Estimated shipping:
May 16, 2010 - May 29, 2010

so no change for me, but on the other hand still not cancelled ... yet

[abookreader]

I checked mine earlier and it still says In Process.

If it ships I think my son's girlfriend has laid a claim on it. Maybe she'll give our Sony 300 back then.



Oh, and our library only adds one or two Mobi books a month now but about 20 or so ePubs.