Sony Drops Price of EBooks - Announces $199 EReader
Sony just dropped the price of all new releases and New York Times bestseller titles in its eBook store to $9.99. In addition, the company also announced two new hardware eReaders: the Sony Reader Pocket Edition with a five-inch screen for $199 and the Reader Touch Edition ($299) with a touch screen and Memory Stick and SD card expansion slots. The new devices will be available by the end of August.
While Sony has always offered very attractive eReaders, the prices in Sony's eBook store were a deal-breaker for many who had been considering buying a Sony eBook reader. Amazon generally charges $9.99 for an eBook, but until today, Sony often asked for $11.99 or more.
Cheaper, But Without Wireless Connectivity
At $199, the Pocket Reader is now a very attractive option for more cost-conscious users (Amazon's cheapest Kindle costs $299, though it comes with a slightly larger screen). It is also important to note that none of Sony's devices currently offer the convenience of Amazon's wireless transfer anywhere within the U.S., but Sony is committed to delivering a wireless device in future.
In contrast to Amazon's Kindle, however, the Sony devices can read files in the open EPUB format and Sony now also offers over 1 million free public domain books through Google Books. The new Sony eBook Library software (available for Macs and PCs) also makes it easy to convert PDF and Word documents and transfer them to Sony's eReaders.
The Default Price of eBooks: $9.99
The new price of $9.99 per book in the Sony eBook store is quite interesting. As David Rothman points out on the Teleread blog, Amazon is actually subsidizing its eBooks to keep the price at $9.99. The question then is whether Sony got a better deal from the publishers it is working with or whether Sony is also subsidizing the price of the books in its store?
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Specially the interface of the Touch Edition looks promising.
On the other hand I have a few doubts about the Pocket Reader, the wheel in the middle of the bottom part does not look conveniently placed. I would like to try it on my on hands.
I've played with both of Sony's eBook readers. The 5 inch model is adequate for reading, and the touch screen model gets a bit of glare from the film over it in bright light. The price is better, but still not going to move enough units, they need to drop another $50 off of it. Also $9.99 is too much for an eBook, I don't care if it is first-run material.