Sony launches two new readers including a pocket-sized $199 device
Sony on Wednesday will unveil two new e-book devices, a pocket edition with a 5-inch screen for $199 and a touch-screen version starting at $299. The devices will be available at the end of August.
The company also plans to reduce all new releases and best sellers at its e-book store to $9.99 each, down from $11.99. Sony will also offer access to Google's public domain library. Add it up and Sony will have access to more than 1 million books via a deal with Google announced last month.
Among the key points to Sony's latest e-reader moves:
The Reader Pocket Edition (right), which weighs 7.76 ounces, is designed to be the e-book for everyman or woman. It comes in blue, rose and sliver, The carries a 5-inch display and fits in your pocket. Pocket Edition carries 350 standard e-books and can run up to two weeks on one battery charge. In addition, Sony's Pocket e-reader will be available at multiple retailers. In an interview, Brennan Mullin, vice president of Sony's audio and digital reading divisions, said the $199 price point is an important one that will open up the market.
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Indeed, Forrester Research projects 13 million e-readers to be sold in 2013, up from the 3 million mark expected in 2009. In a research note Monday, Forrester analyst Sarah Rotman Epps noted that future e-reader adopters will be vastly different than the wealthy early adopters that have gobbled up the Kindle.
Epps wrote:
Forrester’s newest data suggests that tomorrow’s prospects for eReader purchasing bear scant resemblance to the high-earning, male tech optimists that own eReaders today. Later waves of eReader adopters are likely to be female consumers who read a lot but buy fewer of their books online than the first wave of eReader adopters do. This spells trouble for Amazon — and opportunity for consumer electronics manufacturers like Sony, mass-market retailers like Wal-Mart, and publishers like Harlequin, which could (and do) target these consumers with eBook subscription services.
Both devices are Mac compatible, read multiple formats such as Adobe PDF, Microsoft Word, Sony's BBeB format and other text documents. The devices also support ePub format for Google Books, but purchased books will come in Sony's format. Sony also has a library network so you can check out digital collections.
The new Sony Readers will be carried on Sony's online store as well as Best Buy, Borders, Costco, Staples, Target and Wal-Mart.
Mullin's big pitch for Sony is that it has the retail distribution to get its e-readers in consumer hands to try. To Sony, the game isn't the early adopters but the second and third waves of adopters.
Now there are a few items that are missing in Sony's latest readers with the biggest item being some kind of wireless connection. Amazon has bet big on 3G access and other players such as Plastic Logic will have Wi-Fi connections. Mullin said that Sony will have a wireless answer shortly, but declined to detail whether that technology would be 3G or Wi-Fi based.
Also see: E-readers: The fun is just starting
Barnes & Noble partners with Plastic Logic; Opens up; Targets Kindle