New Sony Readers launching today!
It is a widely reported that Sony will today announce the launch of its 2 new ebook readers – the PRS-300 and the PRS-600. Its is now confirmed that Sony will be pricing these very competitively at just $199 and $299 respectively. The PRS-300, to be known more commonly as the Sony Reader Pocket Edition will be a catalyst for exponential growth in the ebook reader category due to it’s price at a third of that of the Amazon Kindle, and $80 less than it’s older brother – the PRS-505.To further fuel the flames, Sony have announced that they are dropping the price of their ebooks to under $10 which is a $2 cut. Market experts believe that this price cut across hardware and software products will be the tipping point for consumers that have held back on purchasing an ebook reader so far. Forrester Research has now admitted that their previous forecasts of 2 million ebook reader sales this year was conservative and that this latest Sony Reader news will be a major part in driving sales well beyond that figure.Aside from the Sony Pocket Reader, the Japanese company are also launching the PRS-600 as a replacement to its PRS-700. This 6 inch ebook reader will be touch-screen and have the external memory slots and digital audio capabilities that the PRS-300 Pocket Reader won’t have. However, the built in light of the former PRS-700 does not feature in the newer PRS-600.
Something else to keep the media attention heightened is the lack of wireless capability for on the move download of ebooks. Perhaps Sony have another launch in prepartion for later 2009 so that the Amazon Kindle UK launch doesn’t enjoy all the attention around Christmas time this side of the pond. We do know that Sony are working on it. Another good bit of news is for Mac Users. The new Sony readers will be compatible with Macs for the first time.