A look at the Sony Reader
Japanese electronics giant, Sony Electronics, recently unveiled it’s Sony Reader - a handheld device for reading e-Books.
Introduced at the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) held earlier this year in Las Vegas, the Sony Reader aims to take hold of the fledgling eBook market.
First, a word of note: I haven’t gotten a chance to get my hands on a Sony Reader. Seems like at this stage it’s intended only for the US market and me being a lowley Aussie I get nuthin. :-) What I can do, though, is utitize the extensive desktop reseach I’ve done (40+ articles, news items and blog posts/comments and countles hours pouring over the fine details) and give you, hopefully, a well-rounded insight on the Sony Reader.
Some of the features that I like:
- it’s about the size of a paperback
- weighs around 250grams
- is 14mm thick
- battery life lasts approx 7,500 page turns or 20 hours
- stores up to 80 average-size ebooks
- optional memory stick can be purchased to store many more.
- has a usb plug
- it uses E-ink technology
On the other hand, if you’re after a true multimedia device then this might not be for you: there’s no audio, it’s in black and white and there are no flash videos or any other multimedia-type apps to be seen. But I guess the natural tendency when bringing to market a new product is to make it as simple as possible for it’s basic use … and maybe down the road add the bells and whistles.
Ron Hawkins, senior vice president of personal reader systems marketing at Sony Electronics, says:
In recent years millions of people have become comfortable downloading and enjoying digital media, including electronic books. But until now, there has not been a good device on which to read them.
It’s pretty obvious that Sony are trying to do an ‘iPod” and become “the” leader in the ebook market. They have (or will) setup their own online “Connect Store” where you can buy and download ebooks (a library of 10,000 is rumoured). It also comes with the Connect software (resembles iPod and iStores, no!).
What concerns me with this approach is that it smacks of a closed system approach to control DRM issues. I’m not sure if that’s the way Sony are heading .. if so it’ll possibly end up being the flop that Sony’s Librie was (Librie being Sony’s initial attempt at an eBook reader a few back). But reading around a bit I see you will be able to read (and I presume, download without Sony’s interference) PDF eBooks as well as Sony’s proprietory thing. If that’s so, then it’s a big plus.
One commenter at Gizmodo asks: “can you ONLY fill it with content from Connect, or will they allow 3rd-party development for it?” At this stage, it seems you can.
What I like…
Sony Reader uses the technology, E Ink, which is an Electronic Paper Display that possess a paper-like high contrast appearance, ultra-low power consumption, and a thin, light form. It gives the viewer the experience of reading from paper.
With no no backlight and zero flicker, eye strain has been the biggest problem facing eBook device manafacturers. E Ink goes a long way to solving this problem.
Here’s how good E Ink is…
“To give you an idea of just how good this display looks… I walked up to the counter, looked at the text on the screen and asked, “So when will you have working units to play with?” The reply: “This is a working reader.” I mistakenly though the text on the screen was some kind of plastic overlay-that’s how ink-like it looked.” (from Gizmodo)
Due for release this April the retail price is rumoured to be between $299-$399. Okay, not cheap but this is a new hardware and as the early adopters get their hands on it and it moves down mainstream street the price will drop.
One note to Sony: don’t forget the rest of the world!
Sony has a glitzy site set up to showcase the reader - here.
11 Responses to “A look at the Sony Reader”
By John Evans (Syntagma) on Feb 20, 2006 | Reply
An iPod for Texties, eh? Could catch on, especially in Japan and Korea where they’re already reading novels on mobile phones (Eeeek!).
$300-400 would bring it in around £250 in the UK, that’s the price of about a dozen new hardback books. It could just catch on if you wanted to carry a number of books around with you. If you read serially (one at a time) as I do, it might not be so attractive.
By Martin Neumann on Feb 20, 2006 | Reply
Hi John,
South Korea is the place to be for this kind of stuff - the whole country seems to be early adopters :-)
Being an Aussie, US$300-$400 would price it from $400-$540 Aussie bucks - yep, same here: about 10-15 hardback books.
But what about this: Xmas holidays and I have to travel 1000 miles away from home to be with the “in-laws” for all that festive stuff (I do that every year!) - imagine how festive it would be if I had this reader, loaded it up with 20, 30,50 or so books and could just pick and choose what to read… now that would be bliss :-)
By John Evans (Syntagma) on Feb 20, 2006 | Reply
Any news on what the download price of a newly published book would be, Martin? If it’s not much less than the print purchase price that might also be a snag for some.
By Martin Neumann on Feb 20, 2006 | Reply
John,
I’ve heard it on the grapevine that it’ll be around 25% of the standard price.
What do you think: say, a $40 hardcover book going for $30 as an eBook.
Personally, I think it’s not enough - especially trying to kickstart the eBook industry again as Sony seem hell-bent on doing. I’d go for a 40% discount just to get the masses excited.
By John Evans (Syntagma) on Feb 20, 2006 | Reply
That is a very small discount, given the costs of producing, storing, distributing and retailing print books. ebooks eliminate all those middlemen and should really retail at around 20% of the hardback price on true cost comparison. Maybe they don’t think they’re going to get much volume here, so are marking a premium price. Bad move, I think. I’d rather pay the extra and get a hard copy on my bookshelves.
By Martin Neumann on Feb 20, 2006 | Reply
Agree 100% with you, John.
I guess Sony want to be the middleman and the big publishers will still want their share - that’s why I was happy that it’s not being tied up 100% into Sony’s proprietary system (I hope not, anyway) - in other words, smaller publishers and self-publishers will be able to do as they please with the Reader in regards to pricing.
I woudn’t mind paying 50% of a normal traditional price if it was going directly to a small publisher or directly to the author - but the big guys are just being greedy (naturally). Harsh, but if that’s so, then the whole Sony Connect thing will fall flat on its face - hope at least the Reader will be around.
Anyway, I’m not really concerned about the big players in publishing (obviously I look at what they’re up to) but my focus is on the small publisher and how they can move forward in this industry.
Don’t you think it’s about time the big players sat down and came up with some standards? Something we - big and small publishers - can work with?
By John Evans (Syntagma) on Feb 20, 2006 | Reply
True, Martin. It’s this whole wretched DRM thing again. We had it with iTunes and the clones, so it’s not surprising that content distributors want to maximize their profits with proprietary standards. In text, content prices have tumbled online, so I suppose it’s inevitable it will be the same.
Another problem is the upgrading of formats, so you have to keep buying new equipment to catch the latest stuff. Books will still be around a century hence, I believe.
By Martin Neumann on Feb 20, 2006 | Reply
DRM - what a can of worms that is !!!
That’s why PDF is the defacto format at the moment for eBook creation.
It’s not the ideal platform but it’s what everyone is used to.
No doubt books will be around forever, but I belileve there is a large enough niche for timely (and low cost) e-publications out there.
An example: At my local Borders store I seldom find any current books on seo, blogging, internet marketing etc., they’re all circa 2002/3 or so. The reason obviously is that it’s the time lag between having a book idea and bringing it to market, which can be close to year. It’s these kind of “timely” books that will do well as eBooks, imo.
By John Evans (Syntagma) on Feb 20, 2006 | Reply
Agreed. That’s the area where ebooks shine. The same sort of Web 2.0 space where blogs stand out. PDFs delivered p2p between computers and read by Adobe Reader is still the most useful form for epublishing.