Although the headline itself may seem a bit misleading, it ultimately isn’t too far from the truth. During this week, Sony has unveiled a new set of eReaders that it will be releasing soon. The entire series (Pocket, Touch and Daily edition) will all be gaining a new Pearl e-ink displays, designed to give much more clarity and less glare then previous models. With this, all units gain a stylus as well to be able to jot notes right on the screen. From there on, the entire series is also gaining 2GB of built in memory (expandable up to 32GB via Memory Stick or SD) and a new responsive touch screen. The only major difference between the screen size of these three units is that the Daily Edition also boasts built in Wi-Fi and 3G.
The PRS-350 Pocket Edition is now $179 and weighs 159 grams, measuring 8.38mm thick, the PRS-650 Touch Edition is $229 with a 224 grams weight and 9.65mm thick body, and the PRS-950 Daily Edition is $299, and weighs 254 grams. So where did Sony go wrong when it was on the right track before? Well the Pocket Edition has gone from the current $149 to $179. The Touch Edition has gone from $170 to $229 and surprisingly, the flagship Daily Edition has stuck to its $299 price point.
When compared to other competitors like the Amazon Kindle and B&N Nook, the Sony Readers are better built with aluminum while staying lighter and thinner, sport longer battery life and are superior specs but that also comes at a price. Sony is betting on two things; that the higher end consumer will support it and that people will compare spec for spec and go for their product vs the others out there. The problem is that the consumer votes with their wallet and time and time again we have seen Sony release better products, but at a higher end price than their competition and the likes of Samsung, Apple and Nintendo eat away at their market share. We need not look further than Apple to see this. Everybody expected such high prices for the iPhone (and yes, the original launch model was) but from then on, they have set the bar for offering some of the most advanced features from prices of $99-$299. They set the bar for the industry at the magical $199 smartphone price. They again did it with the iPad. While everybody was expecting a starting price of $999, they started their units at the $499 and thus caused Amazon and the rest of the eReader makers to adjust their prices. They know how to make a fantastic product, market it and set a price to bring people in.
Sony unfortunately only knows how to make a great product. They seem to be clueless on how to market their product as most people know of the Nook and Kindle but what of the Sony Reader? And pricing that the consumer wants? Look no further than the PSPgo. By setting a higher price when Amazon has just announced their new Kindle at the price of $139 with plenty of commercials on air and Borders is going to be announcing their own $99 eReader, Sony is doing the opposite. Making a higher costly model with no advertisement of their product…I wonder how it’s going to do in sales.