Electronic books are often mentioned in the same breath as Amazon.com Inc.’s Kindle digital reader. Now e-book rival Sony Corp. is determined to recapture consumers’ attention with a smaller reader that’s also $100 cheaper.
Sony is expected to release the Reader Pocket Edition by the end of August. Like the Kindle and Sony’s previous readers, the Pocket Edition will come with an “electronic ink” display, which shows dark grey text on a lighter grey background. As the word “pocket” implies, its five-inch screen will be smaller than that on the Kindle and other Sony models.
Unlike other Readers, the Pocket Edition won’t play digital music files, and it won’t have a slot for a memory card to supplement internal storage that can hold 350 books.
It will retail for US$199, a third off the price of the basic Kindle model and about $80 less than Sony’s PRS-505 reader, which will be discontinued.
The device is entering a small but growing market. U.S. e-book sales totalled $113 million last year—up 68% from 2007 but still a fraction of the estimated $24.3 billion spent on all books, according to the Association of American Publishers.
Steve Haber, president of Sony’s Digital Reading Business Division, expects the Pocket Edition’s price tag will lure new consumers who wouldn’t shell out for such a device thus far.
And he’s not worried that the Pocket Edition’s chances for success will be diminished by the rising popularity of reading e-books on smart phones like the iPhone and BlackBerrys.
“Once you see it, it’s been a consistent response of, ‘That’s cool,’” he said.
Sarah Rotman Epps, a media analyst at Forrester Research, said the Pocket Edition’s price below $200 breaks an important psychological barrier.
“This is something that is affordable for the holiday season, and I think that you’ll see sales of e-readers outpacing current forecasts,” she said.
Her current forecast calls for sales of two million digital reading devices this year; she said a little more than one million were sold by the end of 2008.
She doesn’t expect Amazon to rest on its laurels, adding that the online retailer will have to respond to counter Sony’s new price point.
Sony is also announcing on Wednesday the release of a $299 touch-screen model to replace its existing $350 touch-screen PRS-700.
Sony also is adjusting prices to some of the e-books it sells through its online eBook Store. New releases and best-sellers will now sell for $10, $2 less than current prices. Amazon’s Kindle Store offers most best-sellers and new releases for $10.
Sony’s eBook Store includes more than 100,000 books, as well as a million free public-domain books available from Google Inc. through its Google Books project. The Kindle Store currently has more than 330,000 available titles.
