Amazon 6-inch Kindle Global now $189 no comments
Barnes & Noble announced Monday morning the introduction of a Wi-Fi only version of the nook ereader priced at $149 and lowered the price of the Wi-Fi + 3G nook to $199. Amazon apparently took this as a shot over its bow and responded promptly and forcefully by lowering the price of the 6 – inch Kindle
In a Kindle vs nook price war I have to think that Amazon has the advantage. If necessary Amazon could sell the Kindle as a loss leader and make up the loss on the ebooks sold through the Kindle Store. B & N would have a much harder time doing this.
Amazon’s aggressive response indicates that it is not going to sit by and let its ereader business get disrupted. Remember around the first of the year that wave of new ereaders that we were expecting? There were already abundant signs that the wave was faltering, and with these new lower prices on the market leaders the bar has been raised and it will be much harder for companies to introduce new ereaders and be competitive.
I’m wondering where this leaves Sony. I was expecting an announcement of new ereader models to replace the PRS300 and PRS600, but now I wonder if Sony might not decide to concentrate their ereader efforts in other markets outside the US. Recent announcements from Sony that they were expanding the global distribution of their ereaders as well as building an ebook distribution company in Japan could be indications of this.
As much as I didn’t like the way B & N rushed the nook to market before it was fully functional, in retrospect if they hadn’t done so they would probably be on the outside looking in right now.
£149.00
£109
