Comments on: E-Readers, E-books, E-Newspapers…Egad! http://blogs.gartner.com/allen_weiner/2009/05/04/e-readers-e-books-e-newspapers%e2%80%a6egad/ A member of the Gartner Blog Network Sat, 21 Nov 2009 00:06:43 -0500 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.8.4 hourly 1 By: Allen Weiner http://blogs.gartner.com/allen_weiner/2009/05/04/e-readers-e-books-e-newspapers%e2%80%a6egad/comment-page-1/#comment-241 Allen Weiner Tue, 05 May 2009 14:55:20 +0000 http://blogs.gartner.com/allen_weiner/?p=334#comment-241 Jay, I agree. This is the path we are taking in some of our current research. Jay, I agree.
This is the path we are taking in some of our current research.

]]> By: Jay http://blogs.gartner.com/allen_weiner/2009/05/04/e-readers-e-books-e-newspapers%e2%80%a6egad/comment-page-1/#comment-240 Jay Tue, 05 May 2009 13:58:25 +0000 http://blogs.gartner.com/allen_weiner/?p=334#comment-240 Having looked at this technology for a long time (since the initial Sony reader was announced, we even have a handful of the 2nd generation, American-market versions of these), I have concluded this is a product in search of a market. Gartner would know better than I, but is $300-$400 really where these devices have to be priced to make them (semi-) profitable? In an age where you can carry around 2000 songs on a $100 MP3 player, and an extremely capabale iPhone is $199 and bottom-end laptops can be had for $399, is a $379 single-purpose device really something that has mass market appeal? The answer is no. Until the manufacturers can solve this, no one's buying. Having looked at this technology for a long time (since the initial Sony reader was announced, we even have a handful of the 2nd generation, American-market versions of these), I have concluded this is a product in search of a market.

Gartner would know better than I, but is $300-$400 really where these devices have to be priced to make them (semi-) profitable? In an age where you can carry around 2000 songs on a $100 MP3 player, and an extremely capabale iPhone is $199 and bottom-end laptops can be had for $399, is a $379 single-purpose device really something that has mass market appeal?

The answer is no. Until the manufacturers can solve this, no one’s buying.

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