Sony stepped up its efforts to compete with the Amazon Kindle, unveiling its long-awaited wireless e-reader, the Daily Edition, to a room packed with media at the New York Public Library last week. The Daily Edition, priced at $399, is part of a new generation of dedicated e-readers produced by Sony that include the Sony Touch with a 6-inch display and touch-screen technology for $299 and the $199 Sony Pocket, offering a 5-inch screen.
Along with the new devices, Sony Digital Reading president Steve Haber announced a series of initiatives that include increasing the number of retail outlets that will carry the Touch and Pocket devices (to 8,500 stores nationally), conversion of the Sony eBookstore to ePub standard format and new marketing initiatives with public libraries and library e-book wholesaler OverDrive as well as with the American Booksellers Association.
The new suite of devices represents a turnaround for Sony, a pioneer in the digital reading marketplace, which has been eclipsed by the Kindle. But while Sony's new wireless Daily Edition device will likely attract consumers despite its price, its success is not assured in an evolving marketplace crowded with new devices and new players—like Netherlands-based Irex Technologies (see story, p. 18).
And a closer look at Sony's initiatives prompts some questions. While Sony has increased the number of retail outlets carrying the Touch and Pocket devices to include such chains as Best Buy, Borders, Sam's Club, Staples and Target, at least initially the Daily Edition reader will be available for sale only through its chain of Sony Style stores and through SonyStyle.com, beginning in December. New York Public Library director Paul LeClerc was at the press conference to tout library e-book circulation and a marketing partnership with Sony that includes the Library Finder, an application offered through the Sony eBookstore that will locate ePub content—great for owners of the Touch and the Pocket devices, but not quite as useful on the Daily Edition since library content is not available for wireless download. Ebooks can be transferred by USB cable on all the devices.
Sony is also working with the ABA to get independent bookstores to sell the devices as well as downloadable e-book content through the ABA's newly launched IndieCommerce program, a digital retailing platform that has put about 200 ABA stores online. But ABA COO Len Vlahos acknowledged, “We're still working out the distribution issues” in getting the devices to the stores. And while Vlahos said IndieCommerce stores will “sell e-books through their sites in the Adobe, MS Reader, eReader and other ePub formats, for the iPhone or whatever, except for the Kindle,” Sony has also admitted that, at least initially, wireless downloads for the Daily Edition will be limited to the Sony eBookstore.
