Barnes and Noble announced a drop in prices of its Nook eReader. Amazon too offered a revised price for their new Kindle DX eReader. Following these drastic price cuts, Sony too is now learned to have dropped the price of their Sony Reader devices in order to stay competitive.
So how much do the Sony Readers cost now? Sony Reader Pocket edition which earlier retailed at $169 will now be $20 cheaper at $149. The attractive Sony Reader Touch Edition will now see the price being dropped from $199 to $169. Also, the most expensive eReader of the lot – the Sony Reader Daily Edition will now be priced at $299 – a good $50 drop from the earlier $349.
While this is definitely a good thing for consumers, it is neither a sustainable model, nor is beneficial to the manufacturers in the long term. The eReaders are already reeling under pressure from tablet PC which double up to serve several other functionalities including gaming, web browsing, media consumption,etc. With margins on eReaders already thin,we wonder how long it will be before these eReader manufacturers sell these devices at break-even to thrive merely on revenues made from ebook sales.