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Sony slashes e-book reader prices to as low as $149.99

By | July 6, 2010, 4:20am PDT

Summary: Sony has finally gotten involved in the e-book reader price war by cutting the prices on all three of its Digital Reader models.

Sony has finally gotten involved in the e-book reader price war by cutting the prices on all three of its Digital Reader models.

The Daily, Touch and Pocket Editions all now sell for $299.99, $169.99, and $149.99 respectively. Yet even with a price drop, none of these seem to be worth their costs yet. The 7-inch Daily Edition does offer free 3G access, but it doesn’t offer much more than the latest Kindle for $189 nor the Nook 3G for $199.

Neither the Touch nor the Pocket e-readers support 3G and Wi-Fi, making them more difficult to stack up against the competition altogether. Even the Nook Wi-Fi seems like a better deal at $149.99. Although apparently the Pocket Edition does come with an Eat, Pray, Love bundle including a special cover and the e-book, all in time for that summer film release. Score!

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Topics

E-reader, Sony Corp., Rachel King

Rachel King is a staff writer for ZDNet based in San Francisco.

Disclosure

Rachel King

Rachel King has no business relationships, affiliations, investments, or other potential conflicts of interest relating to the content posted in this blog.

Biography

Rachel King

Rachel King is a staff writer for CBS Interactive in San Francisco. Before serving as a contributing editor at ZDNet in New York City for two years, she previously worked for The Business Insider, FastCompany.com, CNN's San Francisco bureau and the U.S. Department of State. Rachel has also written for MainStreet.com, Irish America Magazine and the New York Daily News, among others. Rachel has a B.A. in Mass Communications and History from the University of California, Berkeley and a M.S. in Journalism from Columbia University, where she served as art director for the student magazine, Plated.

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RE: Sony slashes e-book reader prices to as low as $149.99
johnpall@... 7th Jul 2010
I'm a Musician and think these are great for us just give them the ability to read all file formats and make A4 size ebook readers cheap & we would'nt care if they were updated or not, as this would be much better than shuffling paper.
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RE: Sony slashes e-book reader prices to as low as $149.99
KOS-MOS 6th Jul 2010
Great. Now call us when they're under 20$, as that's all they should cost. 149$ for some piece of junk they'll probably stop supporting in a few years, crazy. Just buy the freakin' book, it lasts forever, doesn't need batteries, looks great on a bookshelf, and best of all, Sony doesn't get yer money.
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RE: Sony slashes e-book reader prices to as low as $149.99
jmlordello 6th Jul 2010
@KOS-MOS Who's gonna call you? You probably can't afford a phone and like your man at the white house don't read anything
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RE: Sony slashes e-book reader prices to as low as $149.99
ncted 6th Jul 2010
I've had my Pocket edition Sony Reader for quite a while now. While it lacks Wi-Fi or 3G connectivity, I have dozens on books on it, so I only have to sync rarely. I have to charge every 3 weeks or so. Given the number of books I have purchased at a reduced price, it has paid for itself now, even at $199. Now I don't have piles of books filing up my house and can carry a substantial portion of my library with me when I travel. It is a nice, simple device that does 1 thing very well. As I am not interested in a tablet and all the associated frustration, my Pocket Reader will continue to be an often-used device for the foreseeable future.
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RE: Sony slashes e-book reader prices to as low as $149.99
JC7305 6th Jul 2010
I've been using my Sony Daily Edition eReader for a few months now and the unit is exceptional. Plus I can get FREE digital books from my local library, which is something that I could not do on the Kindle or Nook devices.
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RE: Sony slashes e-book reader prices to as low as $149.99
JTinNH 6th Jul 2010
@JC7305 The Nook does allow you read ebooks from the library, something I have successfully done.
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Focused on wrong price
halj78727@... 6th Jul 2010
They should be focused on the price of the books. They are currently too high considering I can't lend them, I can't borrow them, I can't resell them or give them away, and they don't have to be manufactured and distributed (in the traditional, expensive way). Unless ebook prices come down to properly reflect these limitations and advantages, no one should buy an ereader at any price. I did and while I like the reading experience, I feel like I get ripped off every time I purchase a book. I don't recommend them to my friends.
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RE: Sony slashes e-book reader prices to as low as $149.99
richard233 6th Jul 2010
I still don't care.
Until I can legally buy/sell/trade/loan/borrow/trade/resell my ebooks that I legally own, it does not matter. Also, the prices need to drop to reflect the much, much lower costs involved. There is no printing costs and the storage fees are almost non-existent. The commissions
offered to the resellers are likely lower too since they do not need to pay upfront anything.
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RE: Sony slashes e-book reader prices to as low as $149.99
gregh_z 6th Jul 2010
I am in agreement that because ebooks can't be lent, shared etc and are dependent on technology to maintain, they are not worth it yet. The price of the technology is too high and the price of the books are still high, given the ease of publishing\distribution.
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RE: Sony slashes e-book reader prices to as low as $149.99
johnpall@... 7th Jul 2010
I'm a Musician and think these are great for us just give them the ability to read all file formats and make A4 size ebook readers cheap & we would'nt care if they were updated or not, as this would be much better than shuffling paper.

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