Sony Reader Daily Edition, Pocket and Touch Launched
Sony heats up the ebook reader market with three new reader devices
Sony ebook Reader Daily Edition, Reader Touch Edition and Reader Pocket edition have been launched. With the launch of the three ebook readers, Sony hopes to raid the ebook reader bastion currently ruled by Amazon’s Kindle.
Photo: Sony Reader Daily Edition
First, a little background: It was Sony who introduced ebook readers to the world, launching its first ebook reader in Japan. It was followed by the launch of an ebook reader in the US. However, Sony’s ebook readers failed to gather steam, and Amazon attacked the nascent ebook reader market with its Kindle electronic reader. Amazon, which has a vast arsenal of books, found it easy to create and launch the Kindle ebook reader in the US. Unlike the Sony Ebook Readers which did not have wireless connectivity, Kindle set the agenda for ebook readers by offering 3G wireless connectivity. This meant that the Sony ebook readers were suddenly obsolete – they had to be hooked up to a computer, so that the books can be transferred to the reader.
Fast-forward to August 25, 2009. Sony has announced three brand-new ebook readers. The catchiest is the the Sony Ebook Reader Daily Edition which will sell at a price of $399 in the US. (Let me quickly add: The new range of Sony Ebook Readers will be available only in the US for now). The Sony Ebook Reader Daily Edition has a touchscreen, which even the latest Kindle, the Kindle DX doesn’t have. It has a 7 inch screen, which uses proprietary technology to give the impression of printed paper. Sony calls it E Ink® Vizplex™ electronic paper display. The same Vizplex technology is used in all three e-book readers launched by Sony today.
Sony said that all three new models in its reader lineup will be available for sale at SonyStyle.com and SonyStyle stores. US consumers interested in checking out a Reader in person can also see them at Best Buy, BJs, Borders, Sam’s Club, Staples, Target, Toys“R”Us, Wal-Mart and other authorized retailers. While the Sony Reader Daily Edition will be available for sale only towards the end of the year, the other two models – Sony Ebook Reader Pocket and Sony Reader Touch will be available immediately.
Photo: Sony Reader Daily Edition
Like Kindle, Sony’s Ebook Reader Daily Edition will also have wireless connectivity. While Amazon Kindle uses Sprint’s proprietary technology called Whispernet, which is basically wireless 3G EVDO, Sony Ebook reader Daily Edition will use AT&T’s 3G network. Sony did not say how fast books will download into the ebook reader, but Kindle downloads a whole book in about 60 seconds. The data download is free, and one has to pay only for the subscriptions, purchases or rentals.
Unlike Kindle, which sells ebooks in a proprietary Amazon format which can be read only on the Kindle, Sony subscribes to the ope-source technology of ePub. This means that just about anyone can create digital books in that format and sell/rent it through the Sony ebook reader network. However, the ePub format is not as popular nor as vast as the Amazon book cavern.
Yet, Sony has some tricks up its sleeve with launch of the Sony Ebook Reader Daily Edition. Sony has tied up with Google for its book scanning venture. This means that about one million books, free and in the public domain will be available to users of Sony’e Ebook Reader Daily Edition. Also, one can buy books from the New York Times best sellers list for as low as $9.99, the same price charged by Amazone for Kindle users.
The Sony Ebook Reader Daily Edition also uses eBook Library software 3.0, which can be used to access digital libraries. Sony also launched the Library Finder application today, in partnership with Overdrive.com. Library Finder will hunt for digital libraries renting books. If you have a Sony Ebook Reader Daily Edition and a virtual ‘library card’, you can ‘rent’ books from the digital library. However, these library books are not downloaded wirelessly into the Sony Ebook Reader Daily Edition. You must first download the ‘rented’ digital library book into your PC or Macintosh, and transfer it to the Sony Reader through a USB cable. After the expiry of the reading period, the ebooks simply expire, which means you dont need to pay any late fee.
Sony hopes to make up for the fewer number of titles compared to Amazon with the library rentals, Google Books and ePub. Sony Ebook Reader Daily Edition users can also access books from the Sony Ebook store.
The touchscreen, meanwhile is the biggest attraction of the Sony Ebook Reader Daily Edition. In an earlier article on the Kindle, DanceWithShadows has mooted a color screen for the Kindle with a touchscreen. It seems Sony has beaten Amazon in the touchscreen display. It remains to be seen whether Amazon will now come up a touchscreen and color screen to rival the Sony Ebook Reader Daily Edition. The 7-inch screen size is good for easy reading, and displays up to 35 lines of text. This is almost the same as the number of lines in a paperback book. The Sony Ebook Reader Daily Edition can be read in a vertical or horizontal format. The contrast ratio of 16 grayscale means that the text is crisp and easy to read on the touchscreen. The Sony Reader has an aluminium body and comes with an integrated cover for protection.
Sony claims that its touchscreen ebook reader can hold a maximum of 1000 books. This is less than the capacity of the Kindle DX, which has a capacity of 3500. But lets not forget that the DX doesnt have a touchscreen and costs $489, while the Sony Ebook Reader Daily Edition comes for less than $400. Sony said memory expansion slots and cards can be used to store even more books, magazines and newspapers.
While the latest Kindle model features text-to-speech facility, the Sony Reader dont. There has been a controversy that Kindle’s text-to-speech (read-to-me) mimics audiobooks and thereby trespasses into the audio rights of individual book authors. However, Kindle is still selling with the read-to-me feature.
Apart from the Reader Daily Edition, Sony also launched a couple of other ebook readers, which are though not in the league of the wireless reader. These are the Sony Ebook reader Touch and the Sony Ebook Reader Pocket. The Sony Ebook Reader Pocket is a tiny ebook reader with a 5-inch screen, and it comes without wireless access. So books have to be transferred from the computer to the Reader through a data cable. The Ebook Reader Pocket comes in three colors – blue, rose and silver. The Sony Reader Pocket is available at $199, which is cheaper than any Kindle version, but lets not forget that all Kindles are wireless devices, while all Sony readers are not. The next in the line-up is the Sony Reader Touch with a 6-inch touchscreen. This too, however, does not have wireless connectivity. It comes for a price of $299.
“We firmly believe consumers should have choice in every aspect of their digital reading experience,” said Steve Haber, president of Sony’s Digital Reading Business Division. “Our goal is to expand the market and provide greater access to what consumers want to read when they want to read it — whether they buy, borrow or get it for free.”
Sony had recently said that it is shifting its entire library of books to the ePub platform. Epub stands for electronic publishing, an open source XML-based platform for publishing.
“From the beginning, we have said that an open format means more choice for consumers,” said Steve Haber, president of Sony’s Digital Reading Business Division. “Now, working with other industry leaders, we can provide a device that is compatible with the widest selection of content available. Readers can shop around for what interests them rather than be locked into one store.”