When Amazon released the Kindle Colorsoft, I was really surprised they priced it so high at $279. Kobo had just released the Kobo Libra Colour a few months earlier with the same 7″ color E Ink screen, and Kobo priced it at a reasonable $219.
Even Onyx’s Go Color 7 is cheaper than the Kindle Colorsoft at $249, and it adds page buttons, a microSD card slot, a rotation sensor, an external speaker and a mic, it has twice as much storage space, and it runs Android so it’s a lot more capable and versatile as an ereader.
Kindles have always been competitively priced. In most cases Kindles are less expensive than similar products from other companies, especially the ad-supported models. But that cannot be said about the Kindle Colorsoft.
First, lets compare the Kindle Colorsoft to the Kindle Paperwhite Signature Edition. They are exactly the same except for the screens. The SE Paperwhite sells for $199, so the Colorsoft is $80 more expensive despite everything being the same except for the screen.
I’ve seen people say online the price is justified because color E Ink screens cost a lot more than black and white E Ink screens, and it’s a new premium feature that warrants a higher price tag.
That might sound reasonable at first, but it’s simply not true, and I can prove it. Kobo sells the Kobo Clara BW and the Kobo Clara Colour. Again, both are essentially the same device, except for the screens, and there’s only a $20 price difference between them.
But the real kicker is the fact that Kobo sells replacement parts for both models, and replacement screens are the exact same price! It doesn’t matter if it’s a color E Ink screen or a black and white E Ink screen. Both are $74.99. And the larger 7″ color screen for the Libra Colour is only $20 more than the 6″ screen for the Clara.
The one saving grace for the Kindle Colorsoft is the fact that Amazon frequently puts Kindles on sale, and Amazon also accepts trade-ins to get an extra 20% off, even while Kindles are on sale so you can stack both discounts.
But Amazon charging $80 more just for color E Ink is frankly ridiculous. Releasing a color Kindle certainly costs more from a developmental standpoint initially, especially with having to optimize the software for color, but don’t let people try to convince you it costs $80 more for color E Ink than BW E Ink.
My thinking is from my years in design and manufacturing: the correct price should be the difference in the screen cost of the PW SE screen and the ColorSoft screen plus maybe a small amount for design development differences between the two. I have the PW SE and absolutely love it. It is perfect for me to read as I have low vision issues. I just couldn’t justify the cost of the ColorSoft, and the screen issues scared me off.
If you want to believe Amazon that they have changed up the lighting system of the colorsoft from regular LEDs or of that of the competition (along with possible changes to the material used to help light up the screen), that could also have a factor in the pricing of the device.
I’m sure it’s overpriced, but not outrageously so. Amazon essentially has a monopoly on the ebook market here in the US and it’s surprising that they don’t overprice every ereader. Apple has been charging their Apple tax forever and people are still hooked on Apple products.
From Amazon’s own self-reporting on sales numbers, it seems like the Paperwhite and Colorsoft are both selling in about equal numbers, so if they keep selling-out of the Colorsoft, it means that it’s not priced highly enough, not overpriced. Given that they offer 20% off for trading-in pretty much any device, it’s closer in price to the Kobo (which is definitely a better deal), and I imagine the Prime Day deal will reduce that even further. They just offered the Colorsofts for $50 off last week (and you could still get another 20% off with a trade-in) so clearly they launched at a higher price than they had to given the pent-up demand for a color eInk device before the holidays, but things are generally worth whatever people are willing to pay for them.
The thing about the Paperwhite is each color and each model has its own set of sales numbers, so they’re actually selling way more Paperwhites since there’s only one version of the Colorsoft. Between the 6 versions for the SE and base Paperwhite the numbers are like 47k+ to the Colorsoft’s 8K+.