Liveblog: Sony announces $399 7" Wi-Fi 3G e-book Reader; will it kill the Kindle?
We're here live in New York for Sony's Reader press event.
Note: This liveblog will be updated in reverse chronological order. Please scroll to the bottom to start from the beginning.
10:46 AM: That's all, folks! Read my analysis of Sony's announcement here.
10:45 AM: Haber announces "Reader Daily Edition, our first 3G wireless reader with 7-inch display." Can be used vertically, horizontally. It's wireless and touchscreen. Sync with PC and Mac. Available this December for $399.
10:42 AM: Haber: "It's all about open at the e-Book Store." Switching over to EPUB standard, and using Adobe's licensable DRM for PDF support. "Open, open, open." New section launch on store: "Library Finder" to find local libraries and check out books from them and transfer them free to your Reader. "No late fees, no leaving your home...bringing e-books to our library system."
10:40 AM: Haber: New software: eBook Library (EBL) 3.0 software, PC & Mac support. New accessories: cover light, car adapter, AC charger, leather case.
10:38 AM: Haber: $299 "Touch Edition," with dictionary and annotation, because people are already behaviorally accustomed to poking at a screen.
10:36 AM: Haber: "It's all about access...and experience." Sony will have more than 8,500 retail outlets carrying the Sony Reader this holiday season, he says. "Affordability" is why Sony developed $199 Pocket Edition. "How do you make a gorgeous device...but hitting the $199 price point to begin the mass-market expansion of digital reading?"
10:35 AM: Steve Haber, Sony's digital reading edition president, takes the stage. "Why e-books?" he asks. "It was so similar to the paradigm shifts between records to CDs...film to digital imaging...CD to MP3." Going from "stone to paper, now on to digital."
10:32 AM: LeClerc: "The free content of this great library is going to be available to those who have Sony Readers, without question whatsoever." That's 40,000 downloadable titles, he says. NYPL is one of five founders of the Google book-scanning project, and "significant collections" of those books will be available on the Readers as well.
10:30 AM: The CEO of NYPL, Dr. Paul LeClerc takes the stage to kick off the festivities.
10:27 AM: It's getting crowded in the Trustees Room at NYPL. Lots of cameras and camcorders here, and there are several kiosks with the two previously-mentioned Readers on display to play with. No sign of the third Reader.
10:15 AM: Looks like there's another device, a larger, potentially Wi-Fi supporting "Daily Edition."It's pictured at top right with an FCC stamp of approval. (Is this Sony's answer to Amazon's Kindle DX?)
10:05 AM: We're live on the scene here at the flagship New York Public Library on Fifth Avenue for Sony's press event for its two new Reader e-book reader devices.
The two new devices, a $199 "Pocket Edition" Reader and a $299 "Touch Edition" Reader, will be unveiled officially today here in the Trustees Room of NYPL.
The two devices are as follows:
- 5 in. display
- 512MB internal memory
- physical buttons
- up to 7,500 electronic page turns
- 7.76 oz.
- PC & Mac support
- 3 text sizes
- Colors: Rose, navy blue, silver
- $199
- 6 in. display
- 512MB internal memory
- Memory Stick Pro Duo SD card for external memory
- Touchscreen
- Up to 7,500 electronic page turns
- 10.1 oz.
- PC & Mac
- 5 text sizes
- Audio player
- Picture viewer
- Colors: Red, black, silver
- $299
The two devices join Sony's existing Reader Digital Book (PRS-505/SC), which sells for $279.
With these cheaper e-book devices, Sony's throwing the e-reader ball back in Amazon's court. The popular Kindle still sells for $299, a price that many say is too expensive.
Additionally, the move puts more pressure on Barnes & Noble, which announced a partnership with Plastic Logic to develop its own e-book reader.
Either way, it's an important announcement for the burgeoning market segment. Forrester Research has projected that 13 million e-readers will be sold in 2013, up from 3 million expected to sell in 2009. As prices plummet, the hurdle will be lower and e-reader owners will grow more diverse than the affluent first adopters who currently make up the majority of customers.
That broad adoption is something Sony (and Barnes & Noble) are better positioned to manage than Amazon, with brick-and-mortar as well as online distribution channels. Sony's new Readers will be available at Sony’s online store as well as Best Buy, Borders, Costco, Staples, Target and Walmart.
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