eReaders Make Great Holiday Gifts or Do they?
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New PRS-900 Sony Reader (credit: Sony)
We are finally done with 2009, and even though the economy has been struggling in the U.S., a lot of people have not abandoned their shopping habits for this holiday period. e-book readers are among the hottest gifts to give a loved one these days. They can not only save you money in the long run, but e-book reader owners can take many books with them on the road (for vacation or business). Of course, it would be nice if these top e-book readers were in stock when you needed to order one.
If you happen to be one of those people who order holiday gifts weeks ahead of time, then you have nothing to complain. But a lot of us tend to wait till the very last minute to order gifts. If you belong in that group, you probably had to cross out Nook and Kindle DX from your gift list.
Kindle DX has been out of stock for a while now. Considering that Kindle DX numbers don’t even come close to Kindle 2 sales numbers, Amazon must have underestimated the demand for Kindle DX. The same can be said about the Nook. B&N had a lot of momentum going into the holiday season, but you can not get your hands on a Nook before February, which seems too far away at this point.
The all new Sony PRS-900BC reader (which looks very good by the way) was also up for grabs this holiday season, but that unit is also shipping starting Jan 15th. The good news is Amazon Kindle 2 was available for pick up throughout this period. So Amazon got it right this time around. Other companies will learn their lesson and plan more aggressively next time around. But it was a bit disappointing to have all these e-readers available on the market and not have the ability to get them shipped prior to Christmas or the New Year’s eve.
What’s your take?
