A few months ago, I received email from Sony saying that they needed to upgrade the firmware in my Sony Reader PRS-500 to support the ePub format as Sony was moving away from their own format. Sony paid for shipping in both directions and returned the unit to me fairly quickly. While I think it was great that Sony did this, it was a bit short sighted on Sony’s part to require me to send in the device to do an upgrade when other company’s like Apple do firmware updates right through iTunes.
Then a few or two ago, I received another email from Sony saying that the last firmware upgrade caused shortened battery life and they needed to do another firmware upgrade. The same day, a large empty box with lots of bubble wrap (far too much to protect the Reader) came for me to ship the Reader back. Again, a failure on Sony’s part to not allow end user firmware updates.
My Reader arrived back yesterday, the day before my iPad was set to arrive. The timing made me laugh as I need to find a new home for my Reader that I likely will never touch again. It’s amazing how far Sony has fallen from grace. This example shows Sony’s poor planning and poor quality control which cost them a lot of money in shipping and repairs to bring my Reader up-to-date (all the shipping was 2nd day UPS).
Anyone want to buy a Sony Reader PRS-500?