Sony E-Readers Mean Big Competition For Kindle

Sony this week unveiled a pair of new e-readers, a sign that the electronics giant is gunning for some of the market share Amazon has built with the Kindle.

Sony on Tuesday launched the Reader Touch Edition and the Reader Pocket Edition, two new e-readers that can both store up to 350 e-books and run for two weeks on one charge, a good chunk of time longer than the Amazon Kindle's four days. The Reader Pocket Edition, Sony's new compact e-reader, is priced at $199, a full $100 lower than the latest kindle model.

While analysts are quick to point out that it will be hard to challenge the dominance Amazon has built in the e-reader market with the Kindle, Sony hitting a lower price-point and delivering two new e-reader options is a sign that there is room for another major player in the burgeoning market.

Both Sony and analyst firm Forrester Research expect the market for e-readers to exceed two million units in the U.S. this year.

"We're on track to exceed that forecast in 2009," Forrester media analyst Sarah Rotman Epps told Reuters. "One of the drivers for that (future growth) is the fact that Sony is getting a product out at $199."

Epps continued: "We predicted that wouldn't happen until next year. They've managed to design an inexpensive device that doesn't feel cheap and that's going to have significant impact in the market."

Still, other analysts note that Sony's Readers' lack of 3G wireless connectivity, which the Amazon Kindle uses to deliver books to the device, could be a hindrance for Sony and it's two new e-readers.

"The difference between these devices and the Amazon Kindle is that it doesn't really have the same friction," Carl Howe, director of Anywhere Consumer Research for Yankee Group, told WirelessWeek. "It's the ability to say, 'I'd really like that book' and have it delivered 10 seconds later that really gives the Kindle an edge."

The Sony Reader Touch Edition offers up a 6-inch menu-driven touch screen for navigation and turning e-book pages, highlighting text and other functions. Users can take handwritten notes with the stylus pen or type with the keyboard, Sony said. The Reader Touch Edition also includes an on-board Oxford American English Dictionary that lets users look up a word by tapping that word on the screen. The Touch model also features five adjustable font sizes and an expansion slot for Memory Stick Pro Duo and an SD card. It comes in red, black or silver. The touch-screen model is expected to run just less than $300, like Amazon's latest Kindle, and be available in late August. The second new Sony e-reader, the Reader Pocket Edition, is a more compact, budget-conscious e-reader. The electronic paper display screen measures 5 inches and will run just less than $200 when it launches at the end of this month, making it the cheapest e-reader on the market at $100 less than the latest edition of the Amazon Kindle. The Reader Pocket Edition is also available in a variety of chassis colors including navy blue, rose and silver, Sony said.

Both the Reader Touch and the Reader Pocket editions feature Sony's E Ink Vizplex electronic paper display that mimics ink on paper. They ship with a protective sleeve and a USB cable. They also feature Sony eBook Library software 3.0, which supports Macs and PCs and lets users transfer and read any Adobe PDF, Microsoft Word document, BBeB files or other text file formats on the e-reader.