Sony has made good on its recent promise to add an e-reader with wireless capabilities by announcing its new PRS-900 (a.k.a. the Reader Daily Edition). The device features a 7-inch touch-screen, a size which places it clearly between the Amazon’s Kindle and Kindle DX devices, at a price of $399.
In an interesting twist, Sony is working to enable libraries to lend electronic books:
Sony used the launch event at the New York Public Library to highlight some notable new features of its e-book platform. Most notable is the expansion of support for library loans to the Sony Readers. If your local library supports electronic lending, members will be able to download the borrowed books and transfer them to the Reader for 21 days (after which the files expire). Sony is partnering with Overdrive.com to make it easier to search for available books at participating libraries.
The launch of this device also cements Sony’s commitment to the Epub format, an emerging open-standard for e-books that balances multiple device vendors while still enabling DRM schemes to prevent piracy.
After facing continued competitive pressure from Amazon’s new Kindle devices and a host of other new competitors, Sony has taken the covers off two new devices as previously rumoured: the PRS-300 (a.k.a. the Reader Pocket Edition) and the PRS-600 (a.k.a. the Reader Touch Edition). The PRS-300 provides a compact reader at a reasonable price of $199, whereas the PRS-600 is a larger touchscreen device that costs $299 (again, confirming prior pricing rumors).
The move signals that Sony is serious about competing against Amazon. Not only is it dropping the price of the devices, it’s also dropping the cost of new bestsellers to match Amazon.com’s price point of $9.99. This will undoubtedly worry publishers, as $9.99 seems to rapidly developing into the e-book equivalent of 99-cent MP3s.
Unfortunately, despite continuing the trend of a touchscreen interface pioneered by PRS-700, neither of these two devices feature any wireless capabilities. While this has allowed Sony to move faster into multiple markets by eliminating the need to negotiate with carriers in the each market, the lack of wireless adds friction to the process of purchasing a book: you need to buy the book, download it to your computer, plug in the e-reader, and then transfer the book to e-reader.
Sony has responded to this criticism by stating it intends to introduce a wireless device, but has yet to announce a specific device or timeframe.
Rumors abound over at Gizmodo over a set of leaked service manuals. Looks like Sony is getting ready to release two new devices:
The PRS-300 will be available in red, black and silver and has a five inch display with 440MB of internal storage (no expandable memory card slots). The PRS-600 will also be available in the same colors, but will also have a larger six inch touchscreen display, audio output, and MS/SD card compatibility with 440mb of internal storage. No lighting or wireless is mentioned in either of the service manuals, but we are NOT opting that out as a feature at this time until we get some sort of confirmation.
Sony and Google reprised their partnership announcement today by adding another 500K public domain books from the Google Books project to the Sony Reader device. Combining this with the 500K titles that Google added to the Sony Reader in March means that Sony users now have 1M public domain titles to choose from. For free.
Is anyone at Penguin or one of those other “classics” publishing houses noticing this? While the quality may not be as good as a reader might normally expect, free is a pretty hard price to beat.
CrunchGear is pointing its readers to an interesting new survey conducted by Catalyst Group. Bottom line: Sony better hurry up and dig the Amazon’s arrows out of its back before they become fatal. The key observations from the report note the Amazon Kindle device’s key strengths as:
- Clearer navigation – Users found the Kindle easier to navigate despite mentioning that they would rather have a touch screen interface
- Better shopping experience – Users found the Kindle’s shopping experience easier since it allowed them to download items directly onto the device without the need of a computer
- More aesthetically pleasing – Users found the Kindle more “sophisticated” and “elegant” looking
- Better tactile “feel” – Users commented that handling the Kindle felt more “natural” and “pleasing”
See the rest of the report here.
Google made its intentions clear today by announcing a deal with Sony to make a half-million public domain titles available for Sony Reader users. For free.
The announcement not only signals that Sony is serious about competing against Amazon, but also that Google clearly has plans in the online book space overall. The company’s Google Books project has been scanning books forever, despite the concerns of publishers over scanning of copyrighted works. This latest move sidesteps that problem by only offering books that are out of copyright, but opens the doors for Google to demonstrate the opportunity for publishers to reach readers through its platform.
For the moment, Sony will get to crow about having a far larger library of titles than the Amazon Kindle. However, that claim may not last long if Google partners with multiple device vendors in a bid to dominate the market through device-independence.