There are two rather interesting sides to Sony’s sudden influx of Sony Readers and features -
- What has Sony seen to suddenly get so focused on the eReader market?
- What Impact will this have on the Kindle and on eReaders in general.
What does Sony know about eReaders we don’t?
Sony saw something in its Sony Reader sales and from its Kindle competitive intelligence to decide that after years of relative inactivity they would suddenly -
- Introduce a $199 eReader.
- Introduce the arguably best touch eReader available.
- Come out with a wireless feature by this Holiday Season.
- Start supporting Library eBooks – a rather risky move given the possible impact on ebook sales.
- Introduce eBooks for PSP and PSP Go.
- Aim to support newspapers and magazines by end of 2009.
Obviously, Sony thinks this holiday season and 2010 will be when eReaders really take off and its preparing itself.
What is the data that Sony used to arrive at this conclusion?
Sony haven’t updated their 400K Sony Readers sold figure since end of the year. Is it because it’s really good, or really bad?
Sony saw something so compelling that not only do we get 3 new Sony Reader models, we also get ebooks added to the PSP.
What Impact will this have on the Kindle?
Sony is not only attacking Kindle on features that Kindle has never been challenged on i.e. wireless support, its also adding features that the Kindle doesn’t have -
- A sub $200 price point.
- Touch, and pretty decent touch.
- Free Library eBooks.
- ePub support and ‘artificial openness’ (since there’s DRM).
- An installed base of 50 million mobile devices (PSPs) that are wirelessly connected back to Sony.
With the December release of the Sony Reader 900 aka Daily edition it’ll be the first time Kindle’s WhisperNet will have a real rival.
By the way, the main stream blogs and news sites that have been so happy to attack the Kindle are already showing their bias – Engadget were fawning over the ‘pretty slick design’ of the 7″ Sony Reader. Just one flaw with that assessment – it’s based off of a non-working, blank screen prototype.
While some people think Kindle and Sony have 45% and 30% share of the market, in my opinion the figures point at 60%+ share for Kindle, and 30% or less share for Sony.
The new releases from Sony (especially the Sony Reader 600) put in place conditions that both Kindle and Sony can exploit -
- Sony could grab a larger share of the market – perhaps hit 40%. Its retail locations certainly hint at the possibility.
- If Amazon uses knowledge of Sony’s offerings to release a much improved Kindle 3, then it could totally clean up this holiday season.
There’s no question that without a Kindle 3 Amazon will lose share in the eReader market this holiday season.
What will be Amazon’s answer?
Filed under: evolution, kindle 3, sony reader Tagged: | kindle vs sony reader, the evolution of books
Could it be due to the rumors that Apple will be introducing an e-reader?
good point. that’s a real possibility. especially if it would hurt sony’s free run outside the us.
I can’t believe that you missed the content management features of Sony that Kindle fans have been screaming for ever since they realized that too many books is a mess on the Kindle.
[...] Kindle Review [...]
I wouldn’t exactly call Sony inactive. We’ve had the 500, 505, 700 and now three additional models which brings it to six in total. Couple that with the google books tie in and the adoption of epub and they’ve taken a lot of steps. In addition their expanded distribution channel is going to get this in front of a lot more people. It’s definitely an interesting time in the market.
The new models and the new retail push is exactly what I’m talking about.