Sony appears to have a promising new product in its Daily Edition Reader, the company’s e-reader offering. The device puts it into competition with market leader Amazon (NASDAQ:AMZN) and its popular Kindle, but Sony still have the consumer electronics brand power to give it a reasonable change to be a force in the e-book industry.
It would be nice if Sony could get its product out for the holidays.
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The Wall Street Journal suggested that readers who look at the Sony e-reader section of SonyStyle.com will find that the product can be preordered but will not ship until some time between December 18 and January 8 and even then “actual delivery date cannot be guaranteed.”
Sony has a history of disappointing investors which may be caused by its history of disappointing customers. The battle for e-reader market share will not be entirely won or lost this holiday, but the efforts by Amazon and Barnes & Noble (NYSE:BKS) to gain customers during the high point of the annual retail season are already considerable. The Kindle is being promoted on the home page of Amazon.com and the Barnes & Noble “Nook” is the featured product at the barnesandnoble.com site.
Research firm Forrester recently raised its forecast of holiday e-reader sales to three million from two million. Sony is risking what could be as many as a few hundred thousand sales by not being able to guarantee shipment of its product before Christmas.
This holiday might have offered Sony a chance to improve its reputation which is now one of being a consumer electronics “also ran”. Instead, it will only add to its own history of disappointing customers.
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Douglas A. Mcintyre
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