Comments on: ‘Story’ e-reader from iRiver goes on sale in the U.K. for £229 http://www.teleread.com/ebooks/story-e-reader-reportedly-on-sale-in-the-u-k-for-229/ News & views on e-books, libraries, publishing and related topics Wed, 15 Feb 2012 08:05:45 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.2.1 By: Piet van Oostrum http://www.teleread.com/ebooks/story-e-reader-reportedly-on-sale-in-the-u-k-for-229/comment-page-1/#comment-1149940 Piet van Oostrum Sun, 29 Nov 2009 08:58:54 +0000 http://www.teleread.org/2009/11/28/story-e-reader-reportedly-on-sale-in-the-u-k-for-229/#comment-1149940 The Story is offered here (The Netherlands) generally for €329, which is outrageous, although I have seen one internet shop offering it for €299. The £229 converted would be around €255. Taxes in GB are comparable to those here, so I see no reason for the price difference other than maybe marketing reasons. The Sony Reader Touch Edition is also €299, but then, it has a touch screen. So IMHO the Story should get cheaper to be competitive. The Story is offered here (The Netherlands) generally for €329, which is outrageous, although I have seen one internet shop offering it for €299. The £229 converted would be around €255. Taxes in GB are comparable to those here, so I see no reason for the price difference other than maybe marketing reasons. The Sony Reader Touch Edition is also €299, but then, it has a touch screen. So IMHO the Story should get cheaper to be competitive.

]]> By: David Rothman http://www.teleread.com/ebooks/story-e-reader-reportedly-on-sale-in-the-u-k-for-229/comment-page-1/#comment-1149924 David Rothman Sat, 28 Nov 2009 21:01:40 +0000 http://www.teleread.org/2009/11/28/story-e-reader-reportedly-on-sale-in-the-u-k-for-229/#comment-1149924 Thanks, Felix. Yep, that $400 of course was the converted UK price, not the actual US price, which we don't know right now. Be fun to see what it actually is. - David Thanks, Felix. Yep, that $400 of course was the converted UK price, not the actual US price, which we don’t know right now. Be fun to see what it actually is. – David

]]> By: Felix Torres http://www.teleread.com/ebooks/story-e-reader-reportedly-on-sale-in-the-u-k-for-229/comment-page-1/#comment-1149922 Felix Torres Sat, 28 Nov 2009 20:27:00 +0000 http://www.teleread.org/2009/11/28/story-e-reader-reportedly-on-sale-in-the-u-k-for-229/#comment-1149922 When comparing electronics pricing across the pond its not always accurate to do a straight currency conversion. For a variety of reasons (some competitive, some legal) european prices tend to be higher than their US equivalent. A lot of companies price the devices at the same numerical value, so a given product might sell for, say, 229 in pounds, euros, and US Dollars. At US$400 the story would have a hard time even if it included wifi, 3G and a touch screen. On the other hand, at $229 for the stripped down version it might carve out a chunk of the Adobe market. I'd suggest that comparing it to Kindle isn't a fair exercise at this point in time for *any* Abode-based reader since there is no real overlap between the two ecosystems; anybody buying into Kindle is committing to Amazon for the forseable future whereas anybody buying and ADE reader is commiting to the Adobe-taxed book stores with their generally higher prices. The whole point of locking customers in is to lock competitors out, after all, no? So, regardless of which flavor of lock-in you buy into, you're still locked out of the other camp. Which renders their readers irrelevant. A proper hardware comparison for the iRiver would be against Sony, nook, Bookeen, Pocketbook, Cool-er, Astak, BeBook, etc. At that point you take the book price differential out of the equation and you're comparing hardware "apples to apples". And since the software is basically interchangeable in the Adobe readers, it all comes down to hardware (which iRiver generally does well) and pricing. Frankly, I think the ADE crowd is headed for a rough awakening next year (50 companies are not each going to capture 5% of the market)but that's just because I remember what happened with "PlaysForSure"... When comparing electronics pricing across the pond its not always accurate to do a straight currency conversion. For a variety of reasons (some competitive, some legal) european prices tend to be higher than their US equivalent. A lot of companies price the devices at the same numerical value, so a given product might sell for, say, 229 in pounds, euros, and US Dollars.

At US$400 the story would have a hard time even if it included wifi, 3G and a touch screen. On the other hand, at $229 for the stripped down version it might carve out a chunk of the Adobe market.

I’d suggest that comparing it to Kindle isn’t a fair exercise at this point in time for *any* Abode-based reader since there is no real overlap between the two ecosystems; anybody buying into Kindle is committing to Amazon for the forseable future whereas anybody buying and ADE reader is commiting to the Adobe-taxed book stores with their generally higher prices.

The whole point of locking customers in is to lock competitors out, after all, no? So, regardless of which flavor of lock-in you buy into, you’re still locked out of the other camp. Which renders their readers irrelevant.

A proper hardware comparison for the iRiver would be against Sony, nook, Bookeen, Pocketbook, Cool-er, Astak, BeBook, etc. At that point you take the book price differential out of the equation and you’re comparing hardware “apples to apples”. And since the software is basically interchangeable in the Adobe readers, it all comes down to hardware (which iRiver generally does well) and pricing.

Frankly, I think the ADE crowd is headed for a rough awakening next year (50 companies are not each going to capture 5% of the market)but that’s just because I remember what happened with “PlaysForSure”…

]]> By: Chris Meadows http://www.teleread.com/ebooks/story-e-reader-reportedly-on-sale-in-the-u-k-for-229/comment-page-1/#comment-1149909 Chris Meadows Sat, 28 Nov 2009 17:09:33 +0000 http://www.teleread.org/2009/11/28/story-e-reader-reportedly-on-sale-in-the-u-k-for-229/#comment-1149909 If I were to get an iRiver, I'd have to name it Tam. Just sayin'. If I were to get an iRiver, I’d have to name it Tam.

Just sayin’.

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