B&N set to unveil . . . something, 7 November

[fbrdphreak]

Realistically, Amazon and B&N are the market players in the e-reader space. Sony's devices aren't exactly high volume, and don't have the advantage of a ready made store to buy content from. Kobo is dead.

This is true, but don't forget that eReaders aren't the only devices used for reading ebooks.

 

[manly]

Has anyone seen any current e-reader market share estimates? I'm sure Amazon is pretty high, but I'd easily put B&N well above 20%. Realistically, Amazon and B&N are the market players in the e-reader space. Sony's devices aren't exactly high volume, and don't have the advantage of a ready made store to buy content from. Kobo is dead.

poofyhairguy linked to a point in time figure in this thread. My vague understanding is they're currently above 20% and that is to me, surprisingly competitive. But one reason is that the NOOK Color is classified as an e-reader, and many savvy consumers have clearly bought it as a (rootable) tablet.

I'd actually flip Sony and Kobo. I don't see Sony's competitive advantage at all, and they generally suck on price points. At least Kobo can be the value leader?

 

[Bateluer]

I'd actually flip Sony and Kobo. I don't see Sony's competitive advantage at all, and they generally suck on price points. At least Kobo can be the value leader?

I don't see how Kobo can be a value leader. E-ink readers are already near bottom pricing, for Kobo to under cut that and not have a store to be tied to is going to be incredibly difficult. At least, with the Sony models, they can market 'premium' features, extra internal storage, more supported files, etc. I suppose one could spin the lack of a store into a strength, if Amazon/B&N go bankrupt(hypothetically), what is the customer going to do with the content they purchased? With a Sony reader, it should mostly be epub and lit files, easy as pie to back up in any number of ways.

 

[gorcorps]

poofyhairguy linked to a point in time figure in this thread. My vague understanding is they're currently above 20% and that is to me, surprisingly competitive. But one reason is that the NOOK Color is classified as an e-reader, and many savvy consumers have clearly bought it as a (rootable) tablet.

I'd actually flip Sony and Kobo. I don't see Sony's competitive advantage at all, and they generally suck on price points. At least Kobo can be the value leader?

Given that B&N sells their brand new Nook Touch for $80 (as a refurb) I don't see Kobo being a value leader either. Hard to beat that and still make money.

 

[Bateluer]

Given that B&N sells their brand new Nook Touch for $80 (as a refurb) I don't see Kobo being a value leader either. Hard to beat that and still make money.

Err 'brand new' and 'refurb' are incompatible terms. 😛 If its a refurb, it may be perfectly fine, but its not brand new. But, B&N does undercut Amazon's entry level Kindle pricing, unless you could the ad subsidized version. Which I don't.

 

[gorcorps]

Err 'brand new' and 'refurb' are incompatible terms. 😛 If its a refurb, it may be perfectly fine, but its not brand new. But, B&N does undercut Amazon's entry level Kindle pricing, unless you could the ad subsidized version. Which I don't.

By "brand new" I meant newest model. It's a refurb of the Nooks latest/newest model.

 

[bonkers325]

was at the B&N store at Union Square last night, they have the back of the store tarped up pretty well. there is a Nook touch banner on the tarp, though...