As the ebook reader market grows around the world with more competition, more innovation, and more markets catching on; Sony’s position as one of the current market leaders is under threat. They’ve enjoyed success over the years with the orginal PRS-500, now replaced by the PRS-505 and more lately the larger ebook reader – the Sony PRS-700. But with a new ebook reader launching what seems to be every month, and a near certain UK launch of the Amazon Kindle before Christmas, Sony aren’t sitting back. 

Crave, the gadget blog from Cnet, this week reported a rumour of a new Sony Reader to be launched as soon as August (just a couple of weeks away perhaps). With the PRS-700 still relatively new, it’s expected that Sony will be upgrading and replacing the PRS-505 with a similar sized but WiFi enabled device.

These rumours were started over on MobileRead back in June after an active forum member claimed that he had it on good authority from a Sony employee that a new ebook reader would be launched in August. Apparently the same guy did say that the new ereader would have a bigger screen (than the PRS-505 we’re assuming), and bigger memory. It doesn’t sound like the device will be touch-screen, probably to maintain the eye-friendly screen display. With regards to price…”most likely $300″.

We’ll keep an eye out for more info and the expected launch date.