Friday, December 5, 2008

Sony Reader: Over 300,000 Sold!

What a smug, snarky, uninformed headline from the Wall Street Journal:

Turns Out Sony E-Book Readers Sell After All
This tech blog has always been skeptical of digital e-book readers. Maybe because we think the feeling of a stiff hardback or welted paperback book is timeless. Or maybe it was because major e-book vendors such as Sony and Amazon.com never released how many units of the devices they actually sold.

This week, though, Sony for the first time disclosed that it sold 300,000 units of its Reader Digital Book globally since the device launched in October 2006.

Emphasis added by me.

Finally! Finally a solid number is made public!

In Sony Reader PRS-700: Part Three, I wrote:
Steve Haber in a little-known but official Sony podcast stated that “hundreds of thousands” of the Sony Reader have been sold and that the eBook Store has done “millions of downloads.” In person, I tried to nail him down to a number, citing that “hundreds” of thousands has as its minimum the plural two hundred thousand. But Haber is a tough customer. He wouldn’t give me a number. But that’s how Sony sometimes operates. I want Sony to issue a number to deflate the nonsensical numbers thrown about for the abominable Kindle. I want to see Sony tell Amazon, “This is what we’ve sold. Now put up or shut up!”

Emphasis added by me.

So what was it, Haber? You wanted to wait for another 20,000 to sell so you could claim 300,000 instead of my "over 200,000?"


Never, ever play cards against Haber!

Previously here:

Should You Still Buy The Sony Reader 505?

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