A price war is raging between booksellers Amazon and Barnes & Noble over their 3G eReaders.
Shortly after B&N announced a $60 drop on the Nook 3G Monday morning, Amazon responded with a $70 cut in the price on the 6-inch Kindle. The score now is Nook $199 and Kindle $189—making the Kindle the lowest price fully featured eReader on the market. The two eReaders were previously $259 each.
B&N also announced a new low priced Nook eReader that sheds 3G capability to offer only WiFi over-the-air book downloads. The “Nook Wi-Fi” is available for order today online at $149.
Source: Amazon
Yes, prices on devices are dropping. BUT… is there a viable reason? Kindle and Nook are having a price war. Is this because, magically, they have found a cheaper way to manufacture devices? Was this because they realized that they had too high a margin and wanted to make a smaller profit? NO!! It was because they were already losing money on each device they sold and now are willing to lose even more. This may be good temporarily for the end user. But… in the long run it will eliminate competition as most device manufacturers do not have the deep pockets of these two. Now, IF Kindle and Sony were the best eBook Readers on the market they should win out. The fact is they are not. By artifically making it impossible to turn a profit on devices (trust me, this IS the case) these two will drive everybody else out and have the market to themselves. Innovation will suffer and lack of competition will bring high prices later! Good ideas for new designs of eBook Readers will not come to market. No, this is PRICE FIXING in action. Lowball and drive out the competition. IREX already declared bankruptcy and others are facing it. Sony may soon decide to drop out also.
Wake up!! This is NOT good news!! Look into this!! SEE that you cannot make devices with their features at this price and be profitable. They are using their deep pockets to make the market impossible for competition!