While borders fired a warning shot in the e-reader market with their $149 KOBO reader, Barnes and Noble may have just sunk the ship with the non- 3G Nook for $149 (the 3G version now sells for 199). This gives readers the option of a fully featured reader at a price that will make Sony wince. I wonder who the next player to drop the price will be and by how much. with the still unfortunately named Ipad blowing the market wide open at $499 (but it is so much more than a reader, it is a status symbol) the readers that do less could hardly compete at the $259 level. After all, if you are spending that much, why not spend a little more and get it all.
Now I feel the market is starting to get serious about getting the general public into these devices and once they hit the $99 dollar mark I think they may have a must have device that every reader will have. I will have to admit that at $149 it is very tempting to put off the purchase of the deer gun I have my eyes on to buy one. If my TBR pile was shorter my order would have been in this morning.
So, Who's next?
More Little boats: Poleacre and America's
1 month ago
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11 comments:
When I saw that number this morning, my Visa started to vibrate and hum in my wallet. $149 is damn close to the magic number, but I want to see what Sony and Amazon's responses are.
Jeremy, that is my thinking as well. I went to several of my favorite small presses to see if I could buy their books on Nook format and was happy to see I could in many cases.
I think that you're bang on with your accessment that the dropping price will make the devices 'must have'. My wife, who does not read a lot, is being mesmerized by the commercials and dropping hints that we shoule have one...
Alan, I don't know if my wife (who reads far more than I do) will ever want one. She likes paper too much. Still, if the price was right. . .
I'm still a dork for paperbacks ; ) Or a moderately priced hardcover, which BORDERS has great sales for. I geeked out this weekend!
Wow...I was a dork and a geek in less than five sentences. Ying is a lucky man.
I still have issues with eReaders being more than reading devices. Why would I want to listen to music on it? Audio books - maybe but then audio books can be listened to on a huge amount of devices already. A screensaver/photo album? It's an eReader for heaven's sake. Colour touch screen - most of the books I read don't have pictures.
The battery life could be an issue as well. It lasts 10 days IF WiFi is off. What if I listen to music during those ten days? I wonder how long it will last then? I wonder if those ten days also includes turning off the screensaver?
I think the KOBO is still leading for me. It's an eReader and nothing more. The page transition is clunky but apart from that, it does what I need and does it for a long time - and I get 100 books (good books) pre-loaded.
To get just an eReader, I'm happy to connect it to the PC to add more books and to recharge the battery. It also gives me the added security of knowing companies like Amazon and Co can't just rip back books I've purchased whenever they want.
That's my two cents...
Nat- I like hardcovers myself. I know they are heavy and clunky, but I am like that too.
BT- I have many of the same issues. Also, I would like a standardized format and not a 'special' format that only one reader can see from one retailer.
Here's an interesting solution to the format problems out there...
http://calibre-ebook.com/
Ha - verification word: oxygoat
Or, you know, you could read for free. With your hands and a book. No screen and overpriced equipment needed...
Barry, good point.
I'll probably be next. Er, well, eventually. :D
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