Odds of Sony Staying in the Ebook Business?

[hidari]

Originally Posted by luqmaninbmore

Sony Ericsson phones are quite nice actually. I an typing this response on a W995 Walkman phone. They are possibly the best music phones available. The last several generations of Walkmen have been open excellent Mp3 players with top notch sound quality, battery life and features.

Though Sony's Reputation is not what it used to be even in Japan....They still do a fair business here. Their MP3 Walkmans sell pretty well....Though I prefer Cowon from Korea myself.... Also In Japan they are very diversified.....They will not disappear anytime soon in Japan. I just think they made a strategic error by not trying to launch the 505 in Japan...I know they launched an eReader (is that correct JSWolf?) in Japan before....but I reckon then the market was not ready before. I have many Japanese friends and acquaintances dying to get their hands on the Japanese version of the Amazon Kindle and the release of the Sony eReader in Japan...which seems to be coming this year as far as I have heard....me Thinks....

[DawnFalcon]

Originally Posted by Crowl

They aren't counting each replacement in that total so the number of working consoles is going to be fairly similar to the actual total.

Until the warranties ran out, yes. Especially in America, millions of 360's were junked because of that. The PS3's, even the slim, are frankly overbuilt - failure rates have been very low.

(Except on one run of PS3 dev kits, suffice to say ALL that run got replaced, heh)

Do you have any figures to back up the claim for europe, the last time I saw figures reported for there, the xbox 360 had a lead in the uk that offset the slight preference for the ps3 in mainland europe.

http://www.vgchartz.com/hardware_totals.php

It's not right, but it's close enough for horseshoes and hand grenades.

[dsvick]

Originally Posted by Crowl

... what they are probably not seeing is the market expanding for them and that is why we aren't seeing new features getting added in updates, unlike the offerings from b&n and amazon that are in a more active competition with each other.

You're probably quite right on that. What I'd like to see is a turn around on that. Maybe they should add some features to drive people to their product. All things considered, if I can pretty much get books anywhere (assuming I'm willing to remove the DRM) and be able to convert them to a format that can be read on just about any reader then I'd be silly not to go for the reader that offered me the most value.

Maybe Sony should create the high end readers, focus on the reading snobs who are willing to pay a premium for the 'perfect' reader and who are not afraid to get content from other places. I'd pay premium for a reader I knew was going to be top of the line and would be regularly updated.

I guess the problem with that though would be hardware upgrades.

[emonti8384]

Originally Posted by dsvick

Maybe Sony should create the high end readers, focus on the reading snobs who are willing to pay a premium for the 'perfect' reader and who are not afraid to get content from other places. I'd pay premium for a reader I knew was going to be top of the line and would be regularly updated.

I agree

[jmac1]

A couple initial (long, sorry) thoughts:

You do not need to dominate a market to be profitable. The e-reader market is still so young that having a few strong players is good for everybody. If there are too few manufacturers, the public will view it as a cute niche, hindering growth. There would be no press except for official company press releases. Psychologically, why would a non-user need a product that nobody else sees fit to manufacture? Fortunately, this is not the case and there is press and hype about e-readers almost daily, fueling market growth for everyone.

I still see a tremendous opportunity for Sony. Eventually the Kindle and Nook will be effectively "free." Manufacturing costs will decrease enough for their proprietary book stores to subsidize the market price (if not completely than to $50 or so).

Presumably Sony's manufacturing costs will also decrease enough to offer products starting at $100 (hypothetically). Most every other "open" format e-reader is in trouble, but Sony has the reputation and resources to stay in the game. Now the question becomes, would you rather be locked into one service or pony up a bit more for an unlocked product? Sound familiar? (cell phones)

If Sony embraces and advertises openness, they could score BIG.

[switchman2210]

Originally Posted by dmaul1114

Time will tell if winning the HD movie disc war was worth that trade off.

As Sony is one of the patent holders for Blue Ray technology, they get a cut of every player, recorder and piece of media sold. I would say it is worth it.

[dmaul1114]

Originally Posted by switchman2210

As Sony is one of the patent holders for Blue Ray technology, they get a cut of every player, recorder and piece of media sold. I would say it is worth it.

Yep, as long as it survives long term and there isn't some other format shift in the short term, as BR is currently really taking off now that player and disc prices have fallen so there isn't such an "HD tax" on buying them instead of DVDs.

So it was worth it for them--they weren't going to stay on top in the western world in games anyway IMO, as Japanese game genre's were losing popularity over here with the rise of FPS games, western RPGs like Oblivion and Fallout etc.

Not to mention the surprise success Nintendo has had getting non-gamers and very casual gamers with Wii Sports, Wii Fit etc.

So the game industry was do for a shake up anyway. Going forward Sony should focus more on Japan hardcore gamers, MS on western hardcore gamers, and Sony on casual gamers world wide.

[Teddman]

Originally Posted by switchman2210

As Sony is one of the patent holders for Blue Ray technology, they get a cut of every player, recorder and piece of media sold. I would say it is worth it.

Sony has actually less than 30% of the Blu-Ray IP (shared with Panasonic, Pioneer, and Warner.)

When you add in the opportunity cost of the billions spent on PS3 R&D, which has yet to yield a profit to offset those costs, as well as the revenue lost by going from "first to worst" in the console standings, it's still debatable whether it was a good business decision overall to cannibalize the games division for the sake of Blu-Ray. It depends on how big Blu-Ray gets in the future as digital downloads threaten to become the dominant form of home movie delivery.

Even in the DVD boom times, the PlayStation division was often Sony's biggest single source of revenue. Now it's their single biggest write-down.

[flyash]

Originally Posted by Teddman

It depends on how big Blu-Ray gets in the future as digital downloads threaten to become the dominant form of home movie delivery.

With old DVD, digital downloads and filesharing, it's pretty clear the Blu-Ray is not going to be the cash cow that DVD was.

[dmaul1114]

Yeah, I love my Blu Rays, but I don't see them every getting the marketshare that DVD had.

Netflix is growing. Adding streaming rentals hurts as well. Piracy is growing as broad band spreads. On demand movie rentals hurts sales. Etc. etc.

Hell, I bought 350+ DVDs. I've got 40 some Blu rays, the vast majority of which were just upgrading favorites I had on DVD.

I've cut my buying way down realizing it's smarter to just rent since I so seldom rewatch. DVD came with this culture of buying instead of renting which wasn't there with VHS. I kind of see a shift back to more renting than buying (but not back to VHS levels) coming with the ease of renting these days with Netflix, streaming rentals, the Red Box machines etc.

[MikeFromHC]

Originally Posted by dmaul1114

Which is where tablets come in. They can be priced higher than dedicated readers. Can sell to more people that the avid reader niche. And they can still put a Sony e-book app on it and make money in their e-book store.

Tablets are the immediate future and I will be surprised if epaper exists in a few years. Mary Lou Jepson has a video floating around that talks about the actual power requirements of e paper vs. LCD. LCD is less but requires constant flipping. (Partially explained here

Here it is, near the end.http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z03hlZThveI

[nomesque]

Originally Posted by MikeFromHC

Tablets are the immediate future and I will be surprised if epaper exists in a few years. Mary Lou Jepson has a video floating around that talks about the actual power requirements of e paper vs. LCD. LCD is less but requires constant flipping. (Partially explained here

Here it is, near the end.http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z03hlZThveI

I'll be surprised if LCD or LED exists as more than a novelty ('read in bed without a light!!!') in ten years' time. I think e-ink will take over.

[dmaul1114]

Originally Posted by nomesque

I'll be surprised if LCD or LED exists as more than a novelty ('read in bed without a light!!!') in ten years' time. I think e-ink will take over.

Not in the mainstream as the tablets will mainly be used for internet, video, magazines etc. etc.

Tablets will never be bought in large numbers primarily as reading devices. They'll just be web machines, video players that can also display text.

People on this site have delusions about how much the average person (especially younger people) do any reading beyond blogs, news blurbs, e-mails and whatever they're forced to read for school and/or work.

[nomesque]

Originally Posted by dmaul1114

Not in the mainstream as the tablets will mainly be used for internet, video, magazines etc. etc.

Tablets will never be bought in large numbers primarily as reading devices. They'll just be web machines, video players that can also display text.

People on this site have delusions about how much the average person (especially younger people) do any reading beyond blogs, news blurbs, e-mails and whatever they're forced to read for school and/or work.

No, I think E-Ink will take over as the primary display-mechanism for computer monitors, laptops, tablets and the like. Seriously. Obviously a lot of technological improvements are required for that to happen - colour, for a start! - but I think it's a logical and near-inevitable progression.

[flyash]

Originally Posted by nomesque

No, I think E-Ink will take over as the primary display-mechanism for computer monitors, laptops, tablets and the like. Seriously. Obviously a lot of technological improvements are required for that to happen - colour, for a start! - but I think it's a logical and near-inevitable progression.

I agree. Who here wouldn't buy an e-ink monitor instead of an LCD monitor if the e-ink had color, could render pages just as quickly, and matched the lcd in all performance aspects and price? It's a long way off, but technology is improving faster than our eyes are evolving, so e-ink, or something at least as easy on the eyes, is the future.