Sony e-readers undercut Amazon's Kindle
IN THE COMPUTER industry's calendar, August is back-to-school promo time. So right on cue Sony has announced a pair of new e-book readers for geeky students to impress their less tech-savvy classmates.
The most prominent feature of these readers is the price, says Seattle PI's bog. Sony claims the $199 Reader Pocket is the cheapest of its kind so far.
Indeed the 5-inch screened Pocket and 6-inch Reader Touch ($299) significantly undercut Amazon's Kindle 2 ($300) and Kindle DX ($450). But neither of the two Sony devices has WiFi or mobile connectivity, so users will have to transfer e-books to their 512MB internal memory by USB cable.
Amazon won't say how many Kindles it's shifted since it launched the e-book reader in 2007, but analysts guess at around 1.5 million units. Amazon is finding the reader market increasingly crowded with Samsung, Elonex, Fujitsu, Cool-er and Plastic Logic also making similar devices.
The Reader Pocket can hold 350 books and go for two weeks on a single charge, Sony claims. The Reader Touch includes a touch screen with a virtual keyboard and stylus for note-taking, and the device has the Oxford English Dictionary onboard. It also has expansion slots for SD memory or Sony's Memory Stick Pro Duo.
The gadgets come in blue, pink and silver and will become available towards the end of the month. µ
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It doesn't have the Oxford English Dictionary. It has the Oxford American Dictionary.
You know they're looking to become a commodity straight out of the gate when they're making them in pink.
Very much looking forward to reading the bog. ;)
Yes, the Kindle 2 DOES have access through the 3G Sprint network.... you can use a USB to download, but you don't have to. The Kindle 2 also has a battery life of two weeks if you turn the wireless off, four days if you leave it on.
Talk about biased reporting! It is a journalists RESPONSIBILITY to research the facts before publishing a story.
I'm sure whatever "lead" Sony's e-reader has is insignificant at best. The fact that Amazon won't even publish sales numbers shows just how slow the uptake is. When or if these devices make it below the $100 threshold, people will snatch them up. But hokey features like "designer colors" aren't going to be dealmakers until then.
The article says that the *Sony* readers don't have Wifi or mobile connectivity. It does not say so about the Kindle. Sony makes competing devices to the Kindle. They are not the same.
It is a commenter's RESPONSIBILITY to read the article before commenting on it.
Har! Har!
BTW: The commenter BB also appears to think the two readers are the same. They are not. I own both.
There is this very well established technology called a 'book'. Portable, durable (some books are over 500 years old!), cheap to make, no batteries required.
Quote: "But neither of the two Sony devices has WiFi [...] connectivity, so users will have to transfer e-books [...] by USB cable."
In light of Amazon's recent disappearing-books act, this might be considered a feature rather than a bug...