Not to toot our own horn or anything but I’d like to think that somewhere along the line, Sony management read our story, “It’s time for Sony to reconsider their eReader strategy,” after which they decided to initiate a price drop on the Sony Reader Wi-Fi (PRS-T1). But even if I have to come off my high horse and admit that it probably didn’t happen that way, it’s still nice to see Sony realize that the price of the Reader WiFi was highly uncompetitive. Now officially priced at $129.99 versus the launch $149.99, the Reader WiFi is actually $10 cheaper then the Kindle Touch which is comes in at $139.99 ($99 if you opt for the version with advertisement on it).

Sony has long argued (even directly with us), that their eReader devices have superior build and quality and to that, we’ve never doubted them on that. However, when the industry leader device (the Kindle) continues to offer starting prices of $99, unless Sony can truly offer something mind bending different, not many will be willing to pay the extra premium offered by the Sony Reader. This especially becomes more and more true as specific device names become synonymies with the product segment i.e. calling all MP3 players iPods and all eReaders Kindles. One can argue that when happens, that company has already won that entire segment and there is little competitors can do. By lowering the price point of the Reader Wi-Fi to that below of the Kindle Touch, Sony is able to not only compete on the dollar to dollar ratio, but also hopefully shake off the image that their device prices always come at a premium.

Discuss:

Would you consider switching or purchasing a Sony Reader Wi-Fi if Sony continued to offer competitive prices?

[Via Sony]