Barnes & Noble V. Amazon V. Sony

Welcome to Round 1 of Barnes & Noble v. Sony v. Amazon eBookstore challenge. To state the obvious Barnes & Noble had to do something. Amazon's Kindle has been out on the market since 2007 and is now in its 3rd generation (amazing that it was launched so long ago). Then Sony launched the Reader in 2008 and partnered with Borders so it was just a matter of time until Barnes & Noble was able to figure it out and develop a partnership with Plastic Logic. Here is the million dollar question: Will Amazon's early launch give it dominant market share? To be fair, the eBook market is still very nascent, but it has certainly attracted significant R&D / marketing spend from these players. To me there are several barriers to any of these companies making significant ROI:

• The price points of the devices need to get to the $100 to $200 level
• Books need to be less than $10 a piece; it is just too easy to order used books from Half.com and Amazon.com
• The target audience needs to be expanded; Right now these devices appeal to the upper echelons who take 12 hour flights and don't want to pack 12 books; The ideal entry point would be in academia, but that hasn't really taken off largely due to price point

I think ultimately Kindle could develop enough momentum to dominate the market as they have their price point down to $299 and have made inroads into universities, but only time will tell. Barnes & Noble has already seen a bump in trading since its announcement so clearly the equity markets recognize it was high time for the Company to get involved, but it will be interesting to see if the Company can turn this into a viable business. Any interesting match to be sure.