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Tuesday, August 31, 2010

Tech / Books Amazon Keeps Making Smart Choices with E-Readers

Posted by on Tue, Aug 31, 2010 at 12:29 PM

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Staples just announced that they're going to start selling Kindles and Kindle accessories in their stores. Staples is probably a better fit than Target, which was previously the only brick-and-mortar store selling Kindles. Business travelers are still probably the target audience for e-readers, and now that Amazon has lowered the price below $200, it approaches impulse-buy territory for many business-minded shoppers.

In other e-reader news, Borders has dropped the prices of two e-readers. The Aluratek reader will now sell for $99, and the Kobo Reader will go for $129, which is ten dollars less than the Wi-Fi only Kindle.

Several months ago, when Borders first announced they were going to sell the Kobo Reader in their stores, it looked like a great deal: It was a no-frills e-ink e-reader. Sure, it didn't have any Wi-Fi or 3G networking capabilities, but it stored a ton of books, and it looked comparable to the Kindle in terms of performance. That was back in the days when the Kindle was almost a hundred dollars more than the Kobo price. Nickel-and-dime fighting with the Kindle isn't going to convince anyone to pick up the Kobo Reader; the only way they could make a convincing case for the device now is to cut the price by half, but Borders probably can't afford to eat the profit margin on anything these days.

 

Comments (6) RSS

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Will in Seattle 1
So, how much are paperbacks?
Posted by Will in Seattle http://www.facebook.com/WillSeattle on August 31, 2010 at 12:33 PM
2
Why exactly is Staples a better fit than Target?
Posted by I Got Nuthin' on August 31, 2010 at 12:36 PM
3
Another smart choice with the Kindle? Making it awesome.
Posted by Spork on August 31, 2010 at 12:46 PM
4
I bought the Kobo reader back when it was released in June. It's a great, slim device with a very minimalist design. The software has some minor usability issues that they've been improving - though they missed the ball entirely on a big one. (The device used to have no "sleep" mode - just on or off. Now, it automatically sleeps after 15 minutes of no activity, then powers off after another 15. I can't disable this and I can just opt to have it stay in "sleep" mode for quick start-up times.) I'm also waiting to here back form support about why it suddenly stopped seeing my files on a particular SD card which is fine everywhere else.

In lieu of price cuts on the Kindle and Nook, I would have purchased one of those instead, but had the Kobo been cheaper, I much prefer it's clean look and feel and I have no interest in purchasing books over the airwaves or being locked to vendor-specific formats.
Posted by diggum on August 31, 2010 at 1:08 PM
5
I'd like to point out that the Kindle is not compatible with the ebooks available for online check-out from the library. Compatible ebook readers are the nook, kobo reader and the sony readers. There's a great selection of ebooks available, and I don't want to limit myself from using that resource.

Then again, I'm fairly thrifty, and although I'm looking around at ebook readers, I still balk at the price. Also, I would really love to be able to comparison shop all of these with working models available at the same store--it's really important to feel the reader in your hands and see how heavy or bulky it is, or if it fits in my purses, how the screen looks, etc. Internet research can only do so much.
Posted by eys on August 31, 2010 at 1:48 PM
Will in Seattle 6
@5 that's because SPL is smart.
Posted by Will in Seattle http://www.facebook.com/WillSeattle on August 31, 2010 at 1:55 PM

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