Sony started strong. The company seemed to have the perfect marketing strategy to outsell Amazon’s Kindle: it offered consumers three generations of solid eReaders. The Sony Reader lineup consists of a budget-minded entry ($100 cheaper than the Kindle), a mid-priced entry with writing capability, and a premium entry with writing capability and wireless connection.
As each new eReader an improvement over its predecessor, consumers can save money by choosing only the features they most need.
Unfortunately, Sony was never able to upstage the Kindle.
What went wrong?
Apparently, the Sony readers weren’t as compelling as the Kindle. Let’s take a brief review the 3 Sony Readers:
The Sony Reader Pocket Edition
It was apparent right at the beginning that the Pocket Edition was no threat to the Kindle. The device suffers from flashes between page turns and has slower page turn rate, lower screen contrast and resolution, smaller storage (good for 350 ebooks; the Kindle 2 could store 1500 ebooks), and no wireless service.
It does hold some advantages over the Kindle such as low price (when the Pocket Edition arrived, it carried only a price tag of $199 – that was $100 less than the Kindle) and ePub file compatibility, but they were not enough to outsell the Kindle.
The Sony Reader Touch Edition
The Sony Reader Touch Edition recreates the tactile pleasure of traditional books, allowing you to thumb through pages as well as mark books with a stylus. However, the device suffers from screen glares, is slow to respond to touch input, has very small storage space, and lacks wireless services.
The Sony Reader Daily Edition
Sony’s high-end eReader, the Daily Edition offers touch response, 3G connectivity, library book lending, ePub file compatibility, access to Scribd site, RSS feeds, and newspaper delivery. However, the device lacks wireless downloads and basic web browser. The Sony Store also offers lesser range of ebooks and periodicals than the Kindle Store.
According to reports, Sony was able to ship about 400,000 eReaders last year – quite a good figure, but not as good as Kindle’s sales.
To deal with Kindle’s popularity, Sony may do two things:
1. Improve the devices’ design and technology.
- Increase onboard storage.
- Improve touch response.
- Add wireless downloads.
- Add basic or advanced web browser for additional reference.
- Improve writing capability.
- Improve screen contrast.
- Add wireless mobile service to Sony Touch and Sony Pocket Edition.
- Increase ebook, magazine, and newspaper selection in the Sony Store.
- Add killer features – perhaps beat Amazon to the color screen,
2. Offer more competitive prices.
The company did reduce the prices of their eReaders, but consumers may not warm up to them much. The eReaders’ new prices are: $149 (Pocket Edition), $169 (Touch Edition), and $299 (Daily Edition). The Sony devices are more affordable than ever, but the Kindle 2 also now costs $189 only and the Kindle DX is available for $379.
Sony doesn’t have much of a price advantage now. There’s only $40 between the feature-sparse Pocket Edition and the feature-packed Kindle 2 and $20 between the Touch Edition and the Kindle. If the new prices don’t increase sales of the eReaders, Sony may go for more aggressive pricing.
The Bottom Line
Amazon has shown its dedication in perfecting the eReader experience and in maintaining its status quo as the number 1 eReader on the planet. For instance, Amazon has recently released a software upgrade that makes its Kindle devices perform better than ever. Sony should do the same and more to beat the Kindle.
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