eReader Makers Continue To Disappoint on Delivery
0
Everybody who knows anything about the retail market knows that the holiday season is the time that people buy things for themselves and their family members, whether they need those things or not. Whether you are an e-book reader manufacturer or a laptop maker, you do want to get your best foot forward during the holiday season to take advantage of the bump that you can get in this period. Apple is one of those companies that continues to deliver the goods on time. The company has mastered the art of introducing its products well ahead of the holiday season and getting them in its customers’ hands before Christmas. Unfortunately, top e-book reader makers don’t seem to find a way to get that done.
We all know what happened with Amazon Kindle (with the first launch). It took a few months for people to get their hands on the device. You would think that other companies that are hoping to challenge Amazon Kindle would learn from that. Plastic Logic has decided to bypass the year-end holiday season and launch on January 7th. Nobody expected the company to sell too many units anyway, and the device is built for businesses in mind. But what’s more disappointing is seeing B&N and Sony struggle to meet the demand for their e-book readers.
Sony was one of those companies that was expected to solidify its position in the e-book market by finally introducing a device that can hold its own against Kindle. Sony Reader Daily Edition certainly looks fun, but Sony may not be able to ship it to you before the end of the holiday season. Now if you order your device soon and are lucky, you may get it before the year ends, but wouldn’t it be nice if all these companies could deliver at the right time?
B&N is certainly going to deliver the Nook on time, right? That’s not what is being indicated on B&N.com. It seems the shipping date is being pushed back every once in a while due to the high demand for the product. So it seems B&N was not able to forecast demand for the Nook either. The good news is that if you ordered your Nook early, you are going to get it on time. But let’s not kid ourselves. The demand for these devices may be high but it’s not iPhone like. Maybe these companies are being too conservative with their demand forecasts. But it’s certainly not fun when you want to buy an e-book reader in the holiday season only to find out that you won’t be getting it in weeks or months.
Your take: would you buy a Nook or Sony Reader Daily Edition, knowing that you may not get them before 2010?
