Will Kobo, Nook and Amazon Touch kill Sony?

[Poppaea]

Originally Posted by Asawi

My home is IKEA. Cheap, cheerful and lots of color. Which only prooves that you can come to the same conclusion from different directions!

My pink 350 in it's pink Sony cover fits so well in my somewhat tasteless home. Also in my super cool (equally lacking in "good taste") T@B teardrop caravan.

(Having said that, There are some really nice covers available for the Nook. Wish the device was better looking though!)

Just believe me, there is a big difference in having your home in Ikea in Sweden and having it here. I saw lots of wonderful homes in Sweden in Ikea and one in France. All Ikea I see here is looking as if the owners were still students on a tight budget, just meh.

Same thing with track suits. Most black guys in green/yellow screaming track suits look damn hot, most white blokes don't. Its a kind of universal law, I guess.

[mcrow24]

Kobo is doing just fine. They are not dependant on Borders. They have only been in business for 2 years and had their own eReader for less than a year.

So far they've been able to gain about 8% market share to B&N's 25 and Amazon's 60-65.

eBook/Reader sales are going up by 10%+ per year, so there are a lot of new customers to fight for right now. They're putting out devices that are comparable in function and features to B&N and Amazon at a very competitive price. Their pricing for eBooks is on par with the big two for the most part. Catalog isn't as large though.

Kobo is the company to watch right now. We know B&N and Amazon are probably always going to be #1 & #2 for quite a while but I think Kobo may start soaking up some of their market share.

[eSheri]

We can write on our Sony screens!
Growing up, my mom never let me write in books. Now i can scribble & annotate till my heart's content!

[LucidDreams]

I imagine that Sony will continue it's trend and produce class leading eReaders for a premium price. There will always be a demand for premium products.

Sadly, it seems that Sony got caught with it's pants down sooner than expected with the next gen eReaders being released. No worries, all they need to do is lower the price for their current line of eReaders. Some retail stores have already reduced the price of the PRS-350 and PRS-950 ($110 and $200 respectively). The PRS-650 is still as rare as gold since Feb. so they don't have to worry much about inventory on that model. And the two other models offer something that Kobo, Kindle, and Nook don't (form factor) so there will be a demand for them. More so at much lower prices.

[Leyor]

With the Kobo having a much lower price point, pearl ink and same touch technology.
The Nook having a comparable offer.

It's hard to see where Sony will go from here. They have a good product, I just bought mine and am happy with the purchase regardless of the new models. However it's going to be really hard for them to improve on the current product.

There's no new e-reader screen technology for them to implement, and none coming out this year according to press releases.

There's not really many features left, except social technology (shudders) or attempting to deal with the flickers (not sure I like the Nooks attempt, makes the flickers more visible imo).

With Sony's having reduced availability and going on clearance sales in physical stores, you have to wonder whats going to be the future of the Sony Reader.

[JSWolf]

But one thing that differentiates Sony from Kobo is the ADE in use. The ADE in the non-touch Kobo is buggy in some significant ways. The two biggest bugs in the Kobo is no link support and buggy embedded font support. Those two bugs make the old Kobo no worth buying (IMHO). This is why I would not rush out and pre-order a Kobo. As for the new nook, I would also wait if I had a reader. I'd want to see the Kobo and the nook. Also, are the rumors true about a touch Kindle supporting ePub? And then what about Sony?

So really, what I think is the best thing to do if you already have a reader is just wait. Don't rush out and buy one now based on incomplete information. Wait and see what happens. Keep what you have and see what comes by the end of the year and then make your choice when you'll have enough information.

[Rizla]

Sony can't compete with the new Nook and Kobo. They'll have to lower the price or get out of the market, and I'm not sure that they can. Could be the death of the Sony e-reader line, which would be a shame 'cos they've led the market tech-wise.

I don't regret buying my 650, but if I was in the market now...? I think I'd still want the 650 over the others, but would make do with the cheaper devices to save $$$.

[Pomtroll]

They are not going to have to worry about lowering prices if no stores carry them anymore. BUMMER! I prefer to try out a reader before buying. No doubt lowering their prices would help them compete. I'm not saying they have to make them the same price or lower than the competition but I didn't buy my Sony 350 till it came down to $129. And I have to admit buying the 950 was tempting when I saw it at Best Buy for $199.

[Poppaea]

What bugs me when I read someone saying Kobo or Nook is now competing Sony is:

- Kobo has a defective dictionary, meaning one can only look up words in Kobo bought books

- both Nook and Kobo don't have PDF reflow

- there is no feature in neither of them that is comparable to the collections

- does any of them have dictionaries for any foreign languages? This I have not seen in specs and thus suspect they don't

- None can play MP3s


The fact of both using now Pearl screens and IR technology doesn't make great readers. Great readers also have great reading features made possible with the firmware. And this seems not be the case with Kobo or Nook.

I expect all new readers from now on to have a Pearl screen. So this is no killer feature anymore just standard.

All those two now do is clever marketing. So now you can compete with Bob and Jill on who reads faster, but they don't give you device features, just social gimmicks.

And who knows? It is perfectly possible all the shortage of the 650s and special prices of the 350s and 950s is due to Sony coming up with new readers soon.

[astra]

I am going to abstain from the speculations.
Nobody knows the answer.
Life is unpredictable.
We will see.

[Leyor]

Originally Posted by Poppaea

What bugs me when I read someone saying Kobo or Nook is now competing Sony is:

- Kobo has a defective dictionary, meaning one can only look up words in Kobo bought books

- both Nook and Kobo don't have PDF reflow

- there is no feature in neither of them that is comparable to the collections

- does any of them have dictionaries for any foreign languages? This I have not seen in specs and thus suspect they don't

- None can play MP3s

They also don't have the same build quality.

The question is if this is going to matter to the average customers. I really think pricepoint, availability and screen technology are the biggest factors for most people considering a purchase.

I'd personally like the give Sony a kick up their backsides and tell them to start selling their bloody product so we don't end up too lonely

[viviena]

In any case, one can't really assume that the deficiencies of the current Nook and Kobo devices will be carried over to their new models. JSWolf is right to say wait and see.

[rhadin]

Originally Posted by Leyor

There's not really many features left, except social technology (shudders) or attempting to deal with the flickers (not sure I like the Nooks attempt, makes the flickers more visible imo).

I agree. The last thing I want on my reader is Facebook access. I don't participate in Facebook now and certainly don't want it in front of me every time I read a book.

I also agree about the flickers. Truthfully, I don't even notice it on my Sony 950 once I get reading. Focusing on reading hides a multitude of sins.

[rhadin]

Originally Posted by astra

Life is unpredictable.

Sorry, Astra, but life is very predictable -- you get born, you pay taxes, you die. How much more predictable can it get?

[ProfCrash]

Originally Posted by Leyor

They also don't have the same build quality.

The question is if this is going to matter to the average customers. I really think pricepoint, availability and screen technology are the biggest factors for most people considering a purchase.

I'd personally like the give Sony a kick up their backsides and tell them to start selling their bloody product so we don't end up too lonely

Bingo.

Most people don't use the dictionary all that often. I am sure that they can buy foreign language dictionaries, you can for the Kindle. Again, having access to a ton of dictionaries is not a big deal for most people. I use my dictionary on the Kindle but probably would have moved any foreign language dictionary to the archive and off my device. I don't need a German language dictionary in my day to day life so I don't care about it. Obviously a German does but if you can buy a German language dictionary and replace the English dictionary and save $80 then does that really matter?

You think that the Kobo, Nook, and Kindle look and feel cheap but the K1 is still alive and kicking. They are working fine and have not fallen apart. Which tells me that their build quality is just fine. The Kindle, Nook, and Kobo seem to have some issues when they are first released which go away after 3 months. Since I know that the sun fade problem for the Kindle existed for the Sony, I am going to assume that even Sony has had some defective devices. You can choose to pay $80 more for a device that feels more rigid but I don't think that the Sony is that much sturdier then then others.

Collections are great, love mine on the Kindle, but is it worth $80 to the average user? I am going to guess no.

Which means that the average user is going to look at the Sony and go "I get pretty much the same thing with companies that have decent book stores and I pay less." Do you really think most of them will chose to pay more?

I wouldn't worry about the social media aspect. You can turn it off on the Kindle. I am assuming you will be able to do so on the Nooks and Kobos