Will Kobo, Nook and Amazon Touch kill Sony?

[advocate2]

If the K4 drops the keyboard for Touch and uses ADE, then maybe Amazon can take over. But without, no way.

I'm with you on that one. Adding worldwide G3 would destroy just about all competition.

Off topic, I was taught to fly in 1969 by Bobby Consalvi of Roslindale who owned the Cessna dealership in Norwood and Jack's Drum Shop on Boylston Street in Boston.

[slieveen]

Amazon introduced the Kindle 3 with great marketing fanfare about how it could be read outside. It appears Barnes & Noble are aiming to market their new device by distinguishing its battery device. Both are 6" eink readers that will destroy Sony's 650 in North America strictly on price and presence in the marketplace.

Sony needs to immediately introduce a competitive price drop for the 650 to about $129 but more importantly, focus an agressive television marketing scheme on the pocket reader 350 at a $99 price range and promote its mobility (slips in a shirt pocket vs its competitors) and coolness (brushed aluminum vs boxy plastic). This was the successful strategy pursued by Apple when it first got into the mp3 music business with its diminutive Ipod and look where that company is today.

If Sony doesn't quickly respond to this week's ereader news (even Amazon introduced a $25 price drop to its 3G model) Sony may as well pack up its tent and move on from North America.

[astra]

Originally Posted by rhadin

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

You get cancer and die before you had a chance to receive your first salary?

Originally Posted by Latinandgreek

I paid over $300 for my first ebook reader, the Sony PRS-505, and never regretted a penny of it {snip} I'm not a spendy person in general {snip}, but I don't have a problem spending a premium on things that I use on a daily basis. I use my ebook reader every day, often for hours at a time, so it really doesn't bother me to pay a bit more for such an often used item.

Originally Posted by rhadin

Not only did I spend more than $300 on my first ereader, a Sony 505, but I spent more than $300 on my second ereader,{snip} And 3.5 years after buying the 505, it is still going strong and is now my wife's daily companion. Both of my Sonys worked as they were supposed to right out of the box, and continue to do so.

Additionally, both Sonys got/get a lot of use by me. I tend to read on the {snip} (and before that the 505) not less than 3-4 hours a day, every day, plus I take it with me whenever we go shopping, to the doctor, to any place where I'll have some time to sit and read while waiting.

500, 505 and now 650. Each has been and is my second best friend.

[Pomtroll]

Originally Posted by slieveen

Amazon introduced the Kindle 3 with great marketing fanfare about how it could be read outside. It appears Barnes & Noble are aiming to market their new device by distinguishing its battery device. Both are 6" eink readers that will destroy Sony's 650 in North America strictly on price and presence in the marketplace.

Sony needs to immediately introduce a competitive price drop for the 650 to about $129 but more importantly, focus an agressive television marketing scheme on the pocket reader 350 at a $99 price range and promote its mobility (slips in a shirt pocket vs its competitors) and coolness (brushed aluminum vs boxy plastic). This was the successful strategy pursued by Apple when it first got into the mp3 music business with its diminutive Ipod and look where that company is today.

If Sony doesn't quickly respond to this week's ereader news (even Amazon introduced a $25 price drop to its 3G model) Sony may as well pack up its tent and move on from North America.

I agree. I really don't know why they do not market better & they certainly need to lower their prices if they want to sell more readers anywhere in the world. Many people love my Sony 350 until they hear the price. And the price of the 650 & 950 really turns them away.

[Ziguezon]

I'm confident that Sony will soon adjust their pricing so that they're still more expensive, but not so much so that it will completely kill their sales.

The PRS-650 was on sale for $219, down from $248 just a few weeks ago at Walmart Canada. I can see the price dropping down to that level and remaining there for awhile.

Its still too expensive, but $219 certainly beats $248.

[Poppaea]

This price thing is only valid in the US. Here where readers are not tied to stores all readers are expensive and Sony is not even more expensive than others. A 6" Pocketbook reader no touchscreen and normal Vizplex but Wifi is 199€,where a PRS-650 is 229€. Heck they still ask 169€ for the old 360° (5" screen, buttons only, old display.

Any company offering readers for $130 has to make their money selling books. Here where books can be bought everywhere and have to, due to the different languages, readers are much more expensive. So the "Sonys are high priced" is no argument for us.

Also they had a huge print campaign out last November/December. Big ads at every underground station throughout the city. It must have been highly efficient I was told.

[jocampo]

Originally Posted by Poppaea

So the "Sonys are high priced" is no argument for us.

But it is for USA and South America and those two are big markets alone. USA is still recovering from a bad recession. And latin countries are mostly poor. No one will invest over of $200.00 on a eink reader just because is a Sony. The new Nook price is just right! If that device works properly and has no major bugs (still no way to know it) will hurt Sony's sales, and Kindle too.

Let's talk in about 2 months or so, and you will see how Sony will drop their prices! Point me to this same post if I'm wrong by then...

[SCION]

Originally Posted by jocampo

...
Let's talk in about 2 months or so, and you will see how Sony will drop their prices! Point me to this same post if I'm wrong by then...

Bookmarked!

[Poppaea]

So give me a good reason why Sony should play by the US rules, where they are a good no. 3 and never will make it to the top no matter how much they drop their prices and invest in marketing.

This just makes no sense. Whereas it makes a lot of sense to invest in the developing markets over here where they already are the top brand and where it will be doable for them to stay in that position.

The US are more or less done ereaderwise, but the rest of the world is not.

So, why should they cater to the whims of the Americans? They have not done so before, why should they start now?

[elemenoP]

well I guess that raises another question (notice I did not say "begs the question"): can a company making ereaders be successful without the US market? How big are the other markets? How big is the second biggest market (and which do you think it is)?

eP

[graycyn]

Originally Posted by jjw

I might be in the minority here but I kind of hope that Sony continues with its current strategy. If i'm going to be spending weeks of my life staring at and using a single device then in the long term i don't really see the initial price as that much of a factor.

When i was choosing my first ebook reader i went with the PRS-650 just because it offered the best reading experience possible. If they didn't lower their prices with new models but kept improving the aesthetics and screen technology then i'd be happy. If racing to the bottom of the price point means cheaper quality readers then Sony kind of loses any advantage they might have had.

I'm with ya. If it does what I want and I love it, then a higher price is also worth it. Many folks talk about how Oberon covers are expensive... and they are, but the pleasure of having one and handling it every single day is what makes paying the price "OK" by me. I paid a high price for my first VitaMix blender too... and it lasted 20 years. 20 years of pleasure. I cheerfully got another and am loving it even more, if that is possible.

Mind you, I'm not sorry that hubby found my Sony 950 for $199 instead of $299! I think I'd have paid the $299 in the end though. I find that when it comes to something I use a LOT, I'm generally willing to spend more to find the right item/tool/device.

[jocampo]

USA is not the center of the Universe, but in terms of readers and market share, has a strong push and presence.

As per IDC, EMEA has only 15% of the world market at this moment. Certainly the language barrier, or better yet, inability for some publishers of releasing on several languages has being a serious issue. Spanish, English, German, just to name a few. In North America, publishers just worry about English; even people from Mexico, Brazil or Colombia (myself) are able to read English or willing to read in English. That helps companies and publishers. More people buying, more options and the market grows.

All those numbers should change in a few years and as per IDC the statistics will be more even, but if Sony does not drop prices or is not willing to change, can be easily out of the competition in a blink of an eye. Remember the Betamax? It happened before ...

[CommonReader]

Originally Posted by jocampo

USA is not the center of the Universe, but in terms of readers and market share, has a strong push and presence.

Do you have any reliable and current figures? The figures I have seen are from around 2001/2002. These figure put the US market at something like 30 billion $ of book sales and the EU market is about 30 billion €. If we disregard the huge swings of currency valuations for the moment these figures indicate that the total European market is at least the size of the US market. This isn't too surprising as the EU is slightly larger than the US as regards the size of the population and the economy. Obviously the US is well ahead as regards the sale of ebooks, e.g. ebooks have a market share of 1% of the book market in Germany at the moment. However, we can expect a huge growth of the ebook market in Europe as well. Additionally, there are the very large book markets in Asia as well, e.g. in China and Japan. These figures certainly indicate that there is a viable future for a producer that relies on markets outside of the US.

Currently Sony rather seems to have problems to meet the demand of the 650 as it is. There are waiting lists of 6 weeks for a 650 in German bookstores. Until Sony gets this sorted out they don't have to worry about lack of market presence.
Someone at MediaMarkt (Europe's biggest retail chain for consumer electronics) told me that they are buying the 650 for 180 € from Sony, that's 255 $ at the current exchange rate. They sell it for 229 € (incl. 19% VAT), that's 325 $. Why should Sony dump its readers on the US market for bargain prices if they can sell them for premium prices in Europe?

[ardeegee]

The thing is, I don't think that Sony's original strategy was to be a "value added" seller. When I bought my PRS-300 in September of 2009, I bought that particular model for one main reason-- at $200, it was the single cheapest e-ink reader available on the market. I don't remember the prices of the competing 6-inch readers available in 2009, but IIRC the PRS-600 was as cheap as or cheaper than most of them (including the Kindle of the time.) By the time the PRS-350 came out at $180, I already thought that the price was scandalously high in the new market environment, but bought one the first time a seller accidentally priced it at $130 (before everyone had to start putting it on "sale" for that little or lower almost constantly-- and if it were selling well at a higher price, I really doubt that there would be constant "sales.")


I don't think Sony is taking a principled stand on offering a premium reader for a premium price-- I think that Sony is just loosing a price war-- badly.

[CommonReader]

Then it still makes much more sense for them to sell their readers where they can command a good price rather than to enter into a price war with readers that are being cross subsidized by being tied into a shop platform. I don't believe that it is reasonable to expect that the Sonys should be sold at the same price as the much more cheaply built Nook and Kobo.
Perhaps we will see a split in the markets. Many car manufacturer sell dumbed down versions of their cars in the US compared to Europe to be able to sell them more cheaply. Apparently there are different expectations of the prospective customers that are being met that way.