E reader price war begins as Asda wages battle against Amazon
A price war on e-readers has been declared, with one particular model being sold for as little as £52.
The so-called iPod of books, which is able to store up to 3,500 readable titles, has seen its sales soar, with Asda offering low prices on the 5 inch View Quest Mediabox.
The price it is offered at, £52, is still less than 50% of the amount Amazon currently charges for its Kindle, a clear market leader. By many, it is feared that the move will threaten to hasten an actual demise of real books, as well as the bookshops that sell them and the libraries that store them.
The £52 media tablet can hold e-books, music, and also videos, in addition to allowing users use of a voice recorder that is able to make notes. For night time reading, it lights up and has a special power-saving mode that can reduce eye strain while improving battery life.
While mostly well received though, the device has been criticised for lacking a link to the world wide web through 3G, which will allow users to download books anytime. The next cheapest device on the market, Imagin, is just short of eight pounds more expensive as the View Quest, and can be found at WH Smith.
While a Kindle without any 3G capabilities comes in at around £111, the 3G version no much more expensive at £152 but can come across as being overpriced when compared to the two previous mentioned devices.
Although the Kindle is an excellent reader and supports connectivity via 3G and WiFi, I believe it has a limited life as the only functionality it offers is as an eReader (only black & white currently)and MP3 player.
It is only matter of time until new multifunctional devices come along offering other media options (isn’t this the same as a laptop/tablet?)