505 spotted at CES

[HarryT]

Originally Posted by spooky69

Doesn't mean Sony hasn't f-ed up their marketing, which they clearly have, to my mind.

You've slightly lost me there. They are selling every unit that they can get hold of, as are Bookeen, Amazon, and iRex too. That indicates to me that they aren't doing too much wrong.

[spooky69]

Originally Posted by HarryT

You've slightly lost me there. They are selling every unit that they can get hold of, as are Bookeen, Amazon, and iRex too. That indicates to me that they aren't doing too much wrong.

Be this true or not, wouldn't you say that having a single, non-functioning image link (and one that could be fixed in a matter of seconds) as the only lead to buying a Sony Reader (of any model, though, once again, it's a non-functioning link to the order page for the PRS-500) from the official website be a link to a blank page indicative of a significant lack of interest in promoting this product effectively? Does this solitary, non-functioning link only become a problem when the product is back in stock?

[HarryT]

Originally Posted by spooky69

Does this solitary, non-functioning link only become a problem when the product is back in stock?

From a practical perspective, yes, it does. It really doesn't matter if a link is functioning or not if it's for a product that you can't buy, does it?

It's unprofessional, I agree, to have broken links on a corporate web site.

At present, though, the situation with all the book readers is that they honestly don't need to be advertised. They are selling themselves as fast as they can be made. The situation may very well be different in a year's time, if supply starts to outstrip demand.

[spooky69]

Originally Posted by HarryT

At present, though, the situation with all the book readers is that they honestly don't need to be advertised. They are selling themselves as fast as they can be made. The situation may very well be different in a year's time, if supply starts to outstrip demand.

No matter what, any company would be generally do well to generate as much awareness of their product and its distribution methods as possible, especially in consideration of potential future purchases, as that's what all eventual sales start out as. Right now, Sony has an official website that doesn't even have a single picture of its flagship e-book reader product, nor any links to a page that would show a picture of the product, much less offer the opportunity for somebody to buy that product, or bookmark that mythical product page for the purpose of possible plunking down their $300 at some indeterminate point in the future. They don't even tell you what brick & mortar stores you could visit for a possible purchase.
Not only is all of this unprofessional, it's markedly unprofessional, especially for a company with the resources of Sony. Although things like this will actually tend to slip through the cracks in a company of Sony's size & diversity, all of the mistakes that have been mentioned are compounded by the fact that they actually made some sort of change to the product's homepage (presumably in response to these issues) that amounted to removing a flash menu bar which contained a single broken link rather than fixing it and "bricking" an inappropriate link, which, though linking to the SonyStyle product page for the PRS-500 (while listing that product as unavailable) actually did some duty in pushing consumers toward eventually, at some point, plugging in their credit card number in for some much-welcomed (you'd think) business.
The little things, yes; you can ignore. When taken as a whole, however, the marketing errors are indicative of a sick product line, and a corporate culture that is, in this instance, eventually resultant in failing to provide the consumer with the appropriate awareness of how to give their hard-earned Kinzcash to the Big S.
The noticeable buzz generated by the Amazon Kindle was, it seems, a much-needed opportunity for e-book readers (and, by consequence, Sony's solid, well-designed PRS-505) to sell a bunch, or something. Sony's true crime (perhaps on level with The Holocaust or that terrible conspiracy to "pull" Building #7 of the WTC) is showing no real drive to fully, or even partially, capitalize on the recent public awareness of e-book readers that they couldn't even generate themselves.
Bad website? Check. Minimal advertising? Check. The Other Boleyn Girl? Thou dost hatheth checkethed this boxeth, kind Sir Sony of Blu-Ray VonCLIÉ IV. All of this, taken together, I would say, qualifies as f-ing up the marketing of the Sony Reader!

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by spooky69

sindget41...

Ummm, try looking at the actual "Sony Reader Home Page" (quoting the header, there):
http://products.sel.sony.com/pa/prs/index.html

Ok, how would you get to this page if you did not already have the link? When I go to the Sony Style website, I can easily find the PRS-505.

[yvanleterrible]

@spooky69

Sony is group of separate entities for each country that have very few links with one another. So far the Reader is only offered by Sony USA. If they were in a position to sell more they would. PVI has a stronghold on production and distribution via patent ownership. They can do whatever they want with it and good for them. All of this to say that Sony has its tentacles tied. Why waste money advertising when you know you won't fill demand?

[spooky69]

Originally Posted by JSWolf

Ok, how would you get to this page if you did not already have the link? When I go to the Sony Style website, I can easily find the PRS-505.

I'm not sure if I understand your question. What I linked to is the official Sony Reader home page, which is not part of the SonyStyle website and contains no working links to the SonyStyle website. If you'll read the entirety of what I wrote, which it doesn't seem like you did, I said several times that this is actually a change from only a couple of weeks ago when they actually had two working links to the SonyStyle website. These links were questionable, in that they connected to the currently-defunct SonyStyle product page for the PRS-500. The 500's page actually contains no links or pictures of the 505, so if you had visited the Sony Reader official homepage and clicked on the "buy now" link, you would have encountered no information whatsoever about the PRS-505 and no way of knowing it existed without prior knowledge.
Since then, they've removed the removed the flash menu bar that had one of the links to the SonyStyle PRS-500 product page and made the other link non-working. So, once again, the official website, which is separate from SonyStyle, doesn't even contain any links to the online "store" for the Reader.
You ask me how would get to this page if I did not already have the link? Google, which is the only obvious way for people to find out about the Reader's SonyStyle product page, even after having visited the official website. This is a problem, and that is as clearly as I can describe it.

Originally Posted by yvanleterrible

@spooky69
They can do whatever they want with it and good for them. All of this to say that Sony has its tentacles tied. Why waste money advertising when you know you won't fill demand?

That that first statement if very debatable, but you have a good point about spending advertising dollars on a product for which they can't fill the demand (though, I've noticed, the blue PRS-505 is still available directly from SonyStyle, and both colors are certainly still available from numerous other sources). There's still no argument, however, for having a website that doesn't even show a single picture of the PRS-505, since the main purpose of that website would be to create awareness about the Sony Reader and its features. In not having a website that can provide this information and create an impression of the 505, Sony is failing to keep casual consumer informed about their newest product (or even the way it looks), and is clearly leaving the money from future purchases on the table. Just think about it: there are certainly some people who would go to this website, see the product, and decide it's not for them. While all you most of the people on here are intimately familiar with the existence of that Sony Reader, the person who's just browsed in would have no way of knowing about the new 505 model, which might appeal to them significantly more than the one Sony shows on there currently. This is especially egregious in light of the fact that these people who are surfing in are probably going to have heard of (and seen) the Amazon Kindle first, and Sony is missing a chance to "wow" them with the (I think) much sleeker-looking PRS-505. By failing to generate awareness of it in a medium that already exists and is essentially free, Sony is losing out on future purchases of the PRS-505.
Finally, I'd mention that even if Sony can't meet the current demand for the Reader, it's certainly not a problem if public awareness of the product outstrips their ability to deliver it to that public. The Nintendo Wii is a perfect example of a similarly-priced electronic item that continues to fall short of meeting demand as is still an unmitigated success for the company that sells it. Having people clamoring to give you money is rarely a bad thing.

[flamaest]

I just tried sony.com and sonystyle.com and got to the 505 purchase page in 2 clicks.

F.

[mdhuang]

Originally Posted by flamaest

I just tried sony.com and sonystyle.com and got to the 505 purchase page in 2 clicks.

F.

Yep. Took me 5 seconds to get there. Both colors are out of stock. Est. ship date for silver doesn't exist (may be discontinued ??? a wild guess) and 1/22/08 for the dark blue one.

[JSWolf]

B&H says they have the blue one in stock.

http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/produc...ital_Book.html

[spooky69]

Originally Posted by mdhuang

Yep. Took me 5 seconds to get there. Both colors are out of stock. Est. ship date for silver doesn't exist (may be discontinued ??? a wild guess) and 1/22/08 for the dark blue one.

I seriously doubt that! You're right about both of them still being out of stock (I mistook the "back order" button for the regular purchase link).

Originally Posted by flamaest

I just tried sony.com and sonystyle.com and got to the 505 purchase page in 2 clicks.

While I recognize that it's not particularly difficult to find the SonyStyle store (I was able to have somebody order the Reader as a gift for me with minimal guidance, the most direct of that being what kind of engraving I wanted), that doesn't have any bearing on the fact the official website for this product sucks right now. This doesn't mean that Sony is losing a painfully large amount of current or future revenue, but I think I've described pretty well why it would conceivably lead to lower awareness of PRS-505, and, by consequence, missed sales opportunities.
I'm not even saying that any of that is a huge problem, other than the fact that it's symptomatic of the attitude that Sony has towards the product, which means, directly or indirectly, a high probability of decreased/inferior support for the product line in the future. Basically, the fact that Sony doesn't even care enough to fix this website is a strong indicator that less time and money is going to be put into firmware upgrades, the design of newer models, and there's even the possibility that the Reader line will be discontinued in the near future. Surely most of you have owned or been aware of a quality product that fails and suffers an early death because of negligence on the part of the company selling it. I get that kind of vibe from the Reader, which is why I'm willing to type so much about minor problems on a website...I just want good support for my pricey gadget, and Sony's sending me many small messages that they're not wholly invested in this product.