Sony Looking To Compete With Amazon On Quality, Not Pricing

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The ereader market may be competing on price right now, but that is not to say all of the current players are going to get involved in the race to be the lowest priced. This is referring to Sony, and of course, comes in response to the price cuts and new model introductions that we have seen with both Barnes & Noble and more recently with Amazon.

According to a recent statement from Phil Lubell, Sony Electronics’ vice president of digital reading;

“Pricing is one consideration in the dedicated reading device marketplace, but Sony won’t sacrifice the quality and design we’re bringing book lovers to lay claim to the cheapest eReader,”

Honestly, while the price can be an important deciding factor for many when it comes time to make a purchase, it is still slightly refreshing to see Sony making an attempt at quality as opposed to price. That said, time will tell just how accurate these statements will end up being. After all, if people are not willing to pay, then Sony may have to make some changes. But that seems fairly obvious.

Otherwise, at present the current pricing on the Sony Reader lineup seems to be a bit higher than compared to others in the ereader market. A quick check of the Sony Style store shows three models including the Daily edition, the Touch Edition and the Pocket Edition with prices of $250, $170 and $150 respectively.

Regardless, according to a statement that Sony made to Forbes, they have “nothing to announce at this time regarding a price move.”

That said, pricing seems to only be one aspect of this ereader war — and the other front comes in regards to software. And while I am not a fan of the Sony Reader devices I cannot say they are bad in anyway. Nonetheless, if I were to suggest a reader to someone at this point it would be either the Nook or Kindle because of the available software.

Yup, its been said before and I will say it again — the ereader market is not only about hardware readers at this point. It is also about having access to your library from a wide variety of devices and having apps available for Windows, Mac and a wide variety of smartphones is a nice selling point.