Jun 10
22
In Price War, E-Readers Go Below $200
B Stone reports in today’s NYT that the E-reader market battles have just heated up by several degrees:
—Barnes & Noble lowered the price for the Nook from $259 to $199, & has introduced a new $149 model
—Amazon has countered by re-pricing the Kindle at $189, undercutting B&N
—Lesser players-IRex, Skiff, and Plastic Logis (the Que)-are either seeking bankrupcy protection or are delaying the launching of their products. Sony, too, faces the need for probable price cuts for its three models now on sale.
The recent introduction of the Apple iPad, and its general popularity (2,000,000 sold in its first two months, with 5,000,000 ebooks downloads already[!]) is the main driver of these developments, augmented by an increase in price=>some profit margins on e-book sales themselves,made by the industry’s acceptance of the “agency sales model” earlier this spring.
¿The future?: Analysts speculate that i)the market will winnow down to only two or three single purpose dedicated e-reader companies; and ii) within a year ther may be a very serviceable device priced at less than $100.
