Sony announced plans to market a paperback-sized e-book reader called Librié e-1000 that makes use of E-Ink display technology. Sony will also launch Connect online store, from which purchasers can download e-books as easily as they download music from Apple iTunes store onto their iPods.Many independent and specialty publishers will also have eBook titles available for purchase and download to the Sony Reader. Two industry experts, Terry Teachout of The Wall Street Journal and Fred Reed of The Washington Times, weigh their opinions on the future of Sony eBook reader.
A Hundred Books in Your Pocket
Terry has positive outlook for Sonay and the general eBook market.
.. it will be because Sony is offering what marketers call an "end to end" solution to the problem of the e-book. That kind of one-stop shopping is what made Apple's iPod so successfulThe phenomenal success of the iPod strongly suggests that many, perhaps most, consumers are ready to start buying digital books on the Web and storing and reading them electronically.
E-books market remains elusive - High Price, Anti-Piracy measures
The Librie sold poorly in Japan as it carried digital rights management software that made downloaded books erase themselves after sixty days. Second factor is the price.
The Librie is going to cost, depending on who you believe, between $300 to $500. Split the difference and call it $400. That's the price of 15 new hardbacks or 100 books bought in a used-book store.Fred feels that unless book publishers reduce prices to reflect the lack of a physical book and let people download books, including free ones, from sources of their choice, they risk another failure.