Grand Bambook is priced at 999 yuan

Shanda's E Ink e-book, Bambook, after a short-term closed beta, was officially priced at 999 yuan. It was announced at 12 noon on August 23, 2010 and began to line up for bookings. It will be officially launched on September 28. The price of the official version can be said to fall below many people's eyeglasses. With the low price plus Shanda's upgrading of Yuntai's software and support formats, can Shanda Bambook bring about an upsurge in the Chinese E Ink e-book market?

Low price listing + multiple upgrade grand can be described as full of sincerity

Shanda previously claimed that Bambook did not calculate R&D expenses and the cost had exceeded 1800 yuan. Before the grand sale of Bambook's official price was announced, industry insiders, media and e-book lovers were more likely to speculate on the price of this product between 1,500-2,500 yuan, and even the news of the price of 3,280 yuan. The grand announcement of Bambook's official price of 999 yuan, it is indeed somewhat unexpected.

In addition to relatively low pricing, the official version of Shanda Bambook has a number of upgrades compared to the internal version. The key ones are:

1. Increase news, forums and blog subscriptions;

2. Increase the function of focusing on other readers' recommendation information;

3, increase the weather forecast function;

4, for the ladder software: increase support for more formats such as epub, fix PDF compatibility issues;

5. Open the bookstore in the cloud and increase the publishing house's management of its own books.

These functions are undoubtedly the opinions of consumers and publishers and other relevant groups. The open cloud ladder software and the cloud bookstore will change the role of Shanda Bambook as a dedicated e-reader. Shanda's low price + many upgrades can be described as full of sincerity. It is foreseeable that before the official release date of September 28th, Grand will have a good scheduled result.

Chinese e-book market will be affected

With its solid foundation of funds and extensive readership of online literature, Shanda has enabled a wide range of consumers to meet E Ink e-books and learn about E Ink e-books in a short period of time. The price of 999 yuan is also very competitive in the current Chinese e-book market. As one of the most interesting products in the Chinese e-book market since 2010, what is the grand launch of Shanda Bambook will bring to the Chinese e-book market?

1. Bring the price of other brand products down further, and promote the further popularization of E Ink e-books

At present, there are only a few products in China's e-book market that are priced at less than RMB 1,000. They do not have their own content resources, and they are often lacking in software usability and support formats. The eBooks of Shanda, which is rich in content resources and can browse the Internet, news, forums, and blogs, are also priced within a thousand dollars. It can be said that there is no rival at this price segment.

ZDC believes that at present, it seems that other manufacturers want to continue to survive in the Chinese e-book market and make money, there are only two ways: First, to come up with a more powerful content resources and network functions than Shanda; Second, the price is set lower. Looking at the current Chinese e-book market vendors, the second route will be faster and easier than the first route. Therefore, it can be predicted that China's E Ink e-book market will bid farewell to the high-profit era, usher in a real low-cost competition stage, this small piece of technology Blue Ocean will also be turned into the Red Sea.

With the help of Shanda's extensive publicity and promotion, E Ink e-books will also bid farewell to the identity of niche consumer goods and step into the purchase of more online literature readers and popular readers.

2. The queuing reservation system becomes a new breakthrough in marketing, with more Internet features

The grand use of internal testing in the form of internal measurement before the official launch of Shanmook for product marketing, is already the first in the domestic e-book market, is more common in online games and other Internet products, the internal measurement and promotion model applied to this after the Bambook The product of Shanda's high hopes is very topical.

The grand announcement of the official price also announced the opening of a network queuing reservation system, which is the first marketing method used in the e-book market and even other consumer electronics products in China.

There is still a month away from the official launch, and queuing bookings with “hunger marketing” style give Bambook greater topicality and wider promotion. This marketing method, together with the sales methods of online direct sales, has brought new breakthroughs in marketing for the Chinese e-book market and even the entire consumer electronics market. Regardless of how effective it is, it provides a typical marketing case for the development of the industry.

Grand competition and threats

1, Amazon Kindle's sword of Damocles in China

The fact that the Amazon Kindle will enter the Chinese market in the name of “Golden Reading” is basically a fact. As early as the end of 2009, Amazon had already achieved a gold-reading trademark in the Chinese market. The current pace of Amazon is also gradually accelerating, and for the Shanda Bambook, which was officially launched on September 28th, Amazon's next steps are all worth paying attention to.

In previous surveys conducted by ZDC on Amazon and Shanda e-books respectively, consumers accepted Amazon Kindle to a higher level. (Related Articles: Can Grand Bankbook try to break through the Amazon model?) Many consumers who are interested in E Ink e-books are watching Grand Apple and Amazon Kindle.

So when will the Amazon Kindle land on the Chinese market? Price geometry? This will, to some extent, affect the results of Shanda Bambook after its official launch at the end of September.

2. Persistence of content monetization model

Previously, Shanda said that Bambook’s hardware costs, including R&D and promotion expenses, have already reached 1,800 yuan, which means that Shanda's Bambook, which was sold at 999 yuan, will enable its operating company, Nutshell Electronics, to sell at a loss for a short period of time. The state of loss. However, a research report by ROTH pointed out that the $1.5 billion in cash on Shanda's balance sheet is enough to cover the loss of its hardware sales, thereby increasing the end-user base and obtaining long-term profit through content resources.

The question before the grand is how to earn back the loss of the hardware through the content? ZDC believes that: The decision to not let the money paid before, how to build a more competitive content platform, increase the viscosity of consumers and cultivate the habit of paying consumers for content becomes the final decision to decide how far Shanda Bambook can go. factor.

Conclusion:

Shanda Bambook's astonishing official price will once again sizzling this product, there is no doubt that this product's sales prospects are very good. However, for Shanda, this is only a successful first step in the long march. How to earn money through content will be more worthy of the grand and e-book industry.