When will the PRS 650 be 'available' for me to buy one?

[stwoodc75]

When will the PRS 650 be 'available' for me to buy one?

[carpetmojo]

   A very good question - p'raps the production lines are too busy making 350s to give away in the Romantic Story competition..............

Seriously, what is the matter with Sony - they have a potential winner on their hands, which requires 3 simple things seeing to :-

1)   A speedy update of the ludicrously/fiendishly complicated software, so you don't have to be a tech geek to tackle it. One gets the feeling that Kindle might have flummoxed them by making it too easy...............

[ It's called simplicity, chaps. ]

and

2) Supplies, supplies, supplies .  [ Especially, it would seem, red......... ]

and, only after the above have been tackled....

3) Publicity.

They don't seem to have made anything of the fact that  "Which"  made both models top in their review of Readers   (must all be tech geeks ?) . 

I personally know of four people who were impressed by my 650 , but gave up and went to Kindle because of both availability, and the WiFi/3G thing (not really needed by any of them, but the advertising - simple, cheap, advanced - convinced them......) And Sony are definitely not Flavour of the Month/Year with Waterstones, particularly, or any other distributor for that matter.

And Sony certainly don't seem to be interested in Customer opinions, comments, or,  indeed, "Relations".

Is perhaps a major part of the problem that the Japanese parent company really do think they know what's best - or the fact that the Readers are made in China, and Sony have lost the address .....?? 

[wiedziem]

I Totally Agree !!!

[carpetmojo]

Well......................

Just out of interest, I visited my local Waterstones yesterday, looking for a present for a friend, and beheld a very large array of ereaders, covers, chargers, all the things a prospective / existing ereader might need. There they were, a couple of Sony ereaders on their stands .............. however, so were iRiver, and others I can't remember, and all their accessories as well.

This was not the biggest surprise though.

It was the fact that all were in identical packaging - a sort of blue shade - on the same large display stand, and the reader boxes were mostly the same size, you had to look hard to see which was which.

So, has W'stones- or someone - bought Sony and all these non-Kindle's out ?

Has Sony finally given up the fight ?

Are W'stones doing a bit of "take the fight to them" strategy ?

Or have they just got fed up with Sony ?

We need a bit of Wiki'ing here, I think...............................

[dataylo6316]

I have asked the same question of Sony three times and their reply is simply to keep looking - very reasurring and no attempt to try to explain why there are shortages.

Maybe - just maybe - the new Kindle and the large number of complaints about the 650's performance have resulted in Sony having a re-think and perhaps the rumours about a replacement for the 650 that are  already circulating on the web are true. Sony won't admit it but I ca't believe that a consumer driven company like Sony would, out of choice, leave a well recieved product in such short supply - well no supply actually.

Their product, when launched, was expensive in comparison to the Kindle but better made, on the face of it anyway, and much more versatile. However Sony's software is at best poor, at worst cr*** - Calibre is a much better product (more so if the various plug-ins available are used). Just use the supplied software, or Digital Editions, to "register" the reader then get rid of it - quickly (especially if you are a Mac user)

Sony have lost ground to Amazon and are doing nothing to push their own product and it's real advantages over the Kindle - you actually own the books you buy unlike with Amazon; you can use libraries with ebook collections to "borrow" books; you can read and work with PDF files; the reader is smaller and lighter etc, etc all of which outweigh it's disadvantages.

The trouble is that the 650 has lost so much ground that it's traditional supporters like Waterstones, Wh Smith etc are now selling alternatives that are cheaper, just as flexible and readily available. The 350 is too small for me, as an old man with failing eyesight - I know my wife has a 300 model.

Wake up Sony or you will never recover ground and stop treating your customers like idiots or you soon won't have any left.

Fortunately my 505 is still going strong but now a liitle slower - I may not buy a Kindle but I may stray towards one of the other offerings,

Message was edited by: dataylo6316

Message was edited by: dataylo6316

Message was edited by: dataylo6316

[carpetmojo]

  Sadly, datalo, it would seem Sony aren't in the business of listening to it's customers i.e. people like us on this Forum, who have already invested in their companies' products.

I can't remember any product I've ever had where the producers seem so oblivious, uninterested, uncaring, and unhelpful as these ereaders.

I've been a great fan of Sony - t.v.'s, sound systems, etc.... - and had a high regard for these products, and passed on recommendations to others.

But, although I love my 650, I can't feel the same way now, after reading the terrible stories here, and my own initial, and on-going, difficulties.

I now say it's a brilliant device, but it is Sony, so if you have any problems, you have to rely on places  ke this Forum, and Mobileread, to sort the software out, advice on problems, and really, for any help you need - cos you wont get much from the manufacturer, or the store you purchased it from.

And I like the thing !

Is it simply that Sony has got too big, or just that they have adopted the attitude that once it's sold, that's the game over - and aren't concerned with anything like repeat purchases, customer loyalty, or after-sales.

And don't they already have a WiFi/3G reader out in the States already ?

And the "Touch" range  was just a stop-gap for the U.K. ?   :smileymischief:

[stwoodc75]

An update. By chance I wandered into PC World in Llanelli. There was a PRS 650 just visible under the counter. The assistant, checking the computer denied having any but he was looking at the red colour ones. I persuaded him to look for a silver one and there it was.

I bought it immediately. Well pleased if not to say well chuffed.

Woody

[Dublevay]

Pitsea Tesco Extra had Kindles and PRS-350s and PRS-650s on the shelf when I visited the other day. Didn't check the price of everything, but the PRS-650 was £229!! Makes me feel good about the £199 I paid back in September!

[carpetmojo]

Down yer in the West  Waterstones have 'em, in the Waterstones "corporate" packaging - I'll have to pop in tomorrow & see how much they are.

Seems a very steep hike for a product they don't seem very interested in ! 

Message was edited by: carpetmojo reason : typo, & forgot where I was 'cos the site seems even slower...........

[dgphome]

I went into my local Sony shop today and enquired about the PRS650. None in stock and none to come, it was marked as 'End of Life ' on their computer. It was still listed as current in the 2011 shop trade catalogue. The salesman didn't know of a replcement.