Sony’s Declining Performance Is The Kindle’s Gain
3 min readI love to read. I read as often as I can and I do it on many devices and mediums from the ‘old fashioned’ paper books, PC, eReaders and mobile devices. Since the start of the eReader wars I went with Sony of Kindle. Sony always had a reputation of high quality, high performing electronics and until recently has never let me down. As the free market functions, I am getting set to move away from Sony eReader and move into something more stable.
Why the switch? First off I believe my recent credit card fraud fiasco was from the Sony breach. I am very careful on where I use my credit card and how I store it. Sony was the only company I did business with online in the last 2 years that had a breach of any magnitude. My card was stored in the eReader store, but I don’t think the full truth on how widespread the recent Sony hacks were. Shortly after Sony had those issues, my card is used abroad racking up thousands in Europe. Coincidence? I am no longer a confident consumer of Sony products and services.
Second is the quality of the reader store and the devices. I have own 3 Sony eReaders. The first I owned was the 505 which I sold to get 2 Sony eReader Touch devices, one for me and one for my wife. The devices are OK, the touch features are a non-feature. I do really like the size, thin, small, and very portable. What I hate is the battery life. 7,000 page turns my butt. I have to charge the device way too often for the technology is runs on and it seems to suck more power when I don’t use it for a few days and it sits idle.
Third the Sony Bookstore. It has all the latest books that you want but it doesn’t seem to have everything and the prices are not up to par with Amazon’s. So, with those 3 concerns with Sony, I am in the market to move to either the Kindle or the Nook.
When the first Sony and Kindle came out, Sony was cheaper and had no wi-fi. Even now, I could care less about an eReader with wi-fi capability. I don’t read so much that I need instant access to get another book. It has never made sense to me that selling point. The other part that doesn’t have any relevancy is the newspaper or magazine ability. There are far better ways to get the news than on an eReader. In my mind an eReader is for books and really not much else.
Now, Kindle has many versions of their reader and a price point that makes it appealing. There is also Barnes and Noble’s Nook reader, but after the crumble of Borders, can you rely on Barnes and Noble? But there is a better reason that I am looking closer to the Kindle is Amazon’s move to make the Kindle accessible across mobiles devices I already own, like the iPhone.
The winds are blowing away from Sony pretty quick. The one device I own and do use it to read some books is the iPad. But when it comes down to the iPad vs. eReader technology is the light. Try reading the iPad in sunlight. You can’t do it and being a guy who reads the most sitting on the deck or in the yard soaking up the sun, the iPad and iPhone are dead on arrival for eBooks.
We’ll see how long I can hold out before I sell off the Sony Touches and move over to the Kindles. I am not in a dire rush and Christmas time is always a good time to either get the next iteration or get the older models for cheap.
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@binaryblogger
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Binary Blogger has spent 20 years in the Information Security space currently providing security solutions and evangelism to clients. From early web application programming, system administration, senior management to enterprise consulting I provide practical security analysis and solutions to help companies and individuals figure out HOW to be secure every day.
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