Quantcast

Don't have an account? Register Now! Forgot password?

Related Articles
Maximum IT
SEE MORE MAXIMUM IT
News

Sony Tweaks its Ebook Strategy

Posted 08/11/09 at 02:15:18 PM  by Paul Lilly

comment Commentsprint Printemail EmailDeliciousDiggStumbleUponRedditFacebookSlashdot

While Amazon's Kindle seems to receive most of the attention surrounding e-book readers, don't count Sony out of the running. On the contrary, Sony has started tweaking its marketing strategy to better compete with the Kindle.

Last week, Sony introduced two new e-book readers at comparatively affordable price points of $200 and $300, with the higher priced model sporting a touchscreen interface. In addition, Sony reduced prices at its online e-book store for new releases and New York Times best sellers by $2 a pop. And finally, Sony has also started offering a handful of newer titles for free from authors such as Brenda Jackson, James Patterson, and others.

"I think the trend toward lower-priced devices will help to encourage adoptions, and it also helps that Sony's best sellers will now be priced at $9.99 -- down from $11.99," said Sarah Rotman Epps, an analyst for Forrester Research. "Even though there are many books priced lower than $9.99 in their online store, just being able to add this price point has psychological appeal."

Epps went to say that while Sony is moving in the right direction, it still needs to do more to make it easier for consumers to find the e-book content they're looking for through its online stores.

Image Credit: Sony

COMMENTS:4
TAGS: mobile, sony, hardware, ebook, marketing
COMMENTS
avataroops! dupe

Submitted by Don Piano on Wed, 08/12/2009 - 1:24am

oops!  dupe

Login or register to post comments
avatarhow does this compare to the

Submitted by mls067 on Tue, 08/11/2009 - 3:18pm

how does this compare to the kindle 2? My wife wants to get a kindle 2 and I told her to look around see if there is anything else out there. I just don;t know enough about these to make a good judgment call for her.

Login or register to post comments
avatarSemi-comparison

Submitted by BinaryMonkey on Wed, 08/12/2009 - 10:51am

A quick note about a few of the differences between this and the Kindle is the Sony Reader uses the xml based BBeB format for their books and the Kindle uses a proprietary format. What this means, is if the Kindle ends up getting discontinued and your device breaks, you lose everything you purchased. On the other hand, Sony's BBeB format can be fairly easily converted to a different format because it's xml based, so in the event of the Sony Book Reader being discontinued, you don't have to shell out more money to replace all you purchases.

Another thing that was a big deciding factor for me was the ability to upload RTF, TXT, PDF, and images straight to the Sony Reader for viewing on the go without any modification, while for the Kindle you need to email them to your Kindle and pay a small fee to have those same documents converted to the Kindle format and sent to your device over its wireless connection.

The Kindle has wireless access while the Sony Reader does not. This is a nice convenience which enables you to download books on the fly, but as we saw a couple weeks ago, this enables Amazon to remove content from your Kindle as they see fit.

I suggest checking out the following links for the more info on all the features these both offer.
http://ireaderreview.com/2008/12/12/kindle-vs-sony-reader-plasticlogic-hanlin-irex-cybook/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sony_Reader
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amazon_Kindle

Login or register to post comments
avatar@mls067 -- there are quite a

Submitted by Don Piano on Wed, 08/12/2009 - 1:26am

@mls067 -- There are quite a few e-ink readers besides Kindle and Sony Reader, such as iLiad
and Cybook.  Some of them have been around longer than the Kindle and
the Sony Reader.  Visit this page to see a list and links to their
webpages:  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_e-book_readers

Login or register to post comments

This Month's Issue
Maximum PC
SUBSCRIBE NOW
AND SAVE!
FEATURE How to Get FREE Programs, Services, Software & MoreFEATURE Digital Photo Printer RoundupHOW TOBuild a 3D CameraFEATUREDIY Arcade PCWHITE PAPERHow TRIM Works