Sony has announced a temporary price cut on its 5” Pocket Reader, dropping the price to $169 until April 4th in a bid to grab whatever market share it can before the iPad hits the streets. (And Nate the Great reports that the Sony PRS-505 is currently $199 in Wal-Mart, in-store only.)
But these low prices may only be the beginning.
Forrester analyst James McQuivey predicts that single-purpose e-reader prices will drop to as low as $99 by next year. “When you are competing against multi-function devices, you have to have a clear signal as to why a single-purpose device is desirable. A price of $99 would be a very strong signal,” he said.
It would also be one of those important threshold prices, like the $9.99 e-book, that make more consumers sit up and take notice. Surveys have shown there would be a considerable bump in the number of people who would buy an e-book reader at $99.
It’s possible Sony is trying to “grab market share” before the iPad hits. But it’s also possible it over-produced (or under-sold depending on your perspective) the 5″ inch units and is attempting some prudent inventory control. In Toronto, the leading big box electronic stores has had the same model for CDN$199 for a week or two. The “In stock?” tool shows ample supply in all Ontario stores.
I’m not convinced the $99 threshold is critical to e-readers because, in spite of our own enthusiasm, they are a niche device. The reality is most people are not avid readers. Long gone is the day when a modest, well-chosen collection of books was proudly displayed in someone’s home was commonplace. Cheaper devices is a boon, yes; and lower prices on content (more important) and just more content easily obtained (most important). I don’t believe you can make a direct analogy with other CE devices like a DVD player.
Multi-purpose devices have their place; so do tightly focussed special tools — like an e-reader vs. a tablet computer, or a digital camera vs. a smartphone. The form factor, price, portability, battery longevity, etc., all speak volumes in favour of an e-reader vs. a multi-media tablet.
In any case, simply having cheap e-readers on the market and selling a lot of devices is much less important than people buying the right tool for them and actually using it. The latter will guarantee the category’s longevity and evolution.
Well, anybody interested in a $99 reader can get it right now.
Via Walgreen’s, of all places”
http://www.walgreens.com/store/catalog/Electronics/OpenBook-E-Book-Reader/ID=prod6016669&navCount=0&navAction=push-product
5″ color LCD screen at 800×480, too.
There’s even a review handy:
http://www.the-digital-reader.com/2010/03/23/delstar-openbook-e-reader/
Of course, it has all the expected features and flaws for a $99 reader at this point in time but it does show the way forward. Anybody willing to gamble? 😉
I think a $100 price point would encourage a lot of fence-sitters. I got my Jetbook Lite for $149 at fictionwise, with a store credit rebate of $50, bringing the effective price down to $100 (I figured I’d buy at least $50 of ebooks no matter what reader I acquired).
When I showed it to friends and family and told them the net price on it, several who had been considering entering the ebook world decided to go ahead and take the plunge. They couldn’t justify to themselves spending $200 or more but at the price I paid they felt they would be getting plenty of value for money…especially after I showed them the hundreds of free out-of-copyright classics I had already downloaded.
I was in my local shop today and checked out the 5″ Sony reader. My real-life experience is strictly with the Kindle 2 (6″). I was really surprised at how much smaller the Sony was — not just form factor but screen real-estate. To each his own, I know: but it seemed “too small”. The newer units with 9.7″ screens are “too big”. The Kindle has found a sweet spot in a form factor which mimics a trade paperback. A little larger screen would be nice, esp. if the overall unit wasn’t much changed, if at all.