Sony to announce US e-book reader

Hallelujah! Sony has done seen the light! According to BusinessWeek, the consumer electronics giant is set to announce a Librie-like E-ink e-book reader for the US that both--are you ready for this--uses SD cards for data storage and displays native PDF files (along with a proprietary Sony format--baby steps, you know?). It seems that the lackluster success of the Librie overseas, combined with an upcoming wave of e-book readers as competition, convinced Sony that more openness was key to the success of this device. Industry heavyweights Simon & Schuster, Random House, and HarperCollins are already signed up to provide content, with the latter two promising to digitize their entire back catalogs for inclusion on Sony's Connect music-and-now-book service, for a combined total of up to 50,000 titles. Sony certainly has an advantage here by being first out of the gate with a relatively large content offering and purported 15-book battery life, but products from iRex, Jinke, and more flexible devices from other manufacturers may prove more popular if they can provide consumers with similar content but better hardware.

[Via MobileRead]

[alex @ Dec 29th 2005 1:21PM]

ebooks are dumb.

[Brian @ Dec 29th 2005 1:28PM]

Anyone want to take bets on whether or not the e-book content at Sony Connect will make it onto PSP Connect as well?

[Andrew @ Dec 29th 2005 1:35PM]

Wow, that girls got to be blind to be holding an e-book reader that close to her face.

[Rachel @ Dec 29th 2005 1:40PM]

I was going to say something similar, but seriously... this was a great idea like 5 years ago, no?

[Gil @ Dec 29th 2005 1:40PM]

It's finally begun! The transition to e-paper technologies is starting to move rapidly and in 20 years I think actual paper books will be a rarity.





alex: go back to your nazi friends having the book BBQ

[John Doe @ Dec 29th 2005 1:41PM]

No just your comment is. On my iPaq 4700 I can carry a few hundred e-books with me. Reading in the dark is no longer a problem. Built in dictionaries makes looking up the random word easy. Battery life is hardly an issue anymore. Cleartype, on the PPC at the very least makes it easy to read. Hell think about schoolbooks. Instead of dragging around 5+ books you have your tablet.



As for Sony's offering. I really wish someone would team up with www.ereader.com Their selection is HUGE. It could compliment this reader perfectly.

[Kat @ Dec 29th 2005 1:45PM]

I would like to know how long a "15-book battery life" is.

Hmm, the article says the book only needs to apply power to "turn" the page, so I guess that means the e-ink only needs to be charged to display the correct pixels then remains in-place until the next change?

Sounds interesting.



Should be an interesting way to bring reading back into the mainstream, and e-ink is definitely cool technology, from what they were saying I'd like to hear more about how it works.

[mathmonkey @ Dec 29th 2005 1:47PM]

Not to go for alex's troll-bait, but I'm really excited about the e-ink/ebook combo. Combined with Project Gutenberg I couldn't be more anxious for this tech to come into my pricerange; maybe

[Goodman @ Dec 29th 2005 1:52PM]

With a color Palm going for $99 retail, it strikes me as... optimistic... to expect to sell these for $300-$500 each. They're big and clunky and won't fit in your pocket. The ebooks you buy for it aren't notably cheaper than buying regular books from Amazon.com, so there seems to be no advantage for most people. Plus, men are the biggest gadget heads, but they also do the least reading (especially fiction) which is a big problem.

[Bill E. @ Dec 29th 2005 1:54PM]

ebooks as replacement for Harry Potter hard covers are a fine idea, but I see the primary (initial) market for devices like this as attorneys or others with document-heavy work. I would love to be able to have a light-weight device with a nice big screen on which I could carry entire cases-worth of documents, especially if I could search them easily and mark them up a bit with notes. PPCs are great for this, but most of them don't have screens that are large enough to actually do work on, and laptops are cumbersome to use on the train/backseat/plane, and they suck battery-juice and have long bootup times. If Sony doesn't muck it all up, one of these will be on the desk of every associate the minute they come out.

[narco @ Dec 29th 2005 2:14PM]

Now all we need is a program called iBooks and a way to convert my paper books into digital books. Pretty soon my apartment will only have an iPod, an eBook reader and a bed. Maybe a case of Newcastle as well.



Fishes,

narco.

[lebroz @ Dec 29th 2005 2:18PM]

wow



the big news here is sony is using secure digital cards



unblievable

[Baumann @ Dec 29th 2005 2:21PM]

Seriously, this is a horrible idea. Do you know how much paper I go through at my programming job because sometimes I just want to see the code on paper? There's something to be said about the tangible book. Otherwise, I'd just get the information in a PDF and read it on my laptop. People get sick of computer screens. They're not going to want to do something they could just as easily do without the screen on.



Besides, it's not like people read 50 different books at a time. I could see students finding something like this useful, but I'm sure they'd much rather just have a laptop and the afformentioned PDF.



Again... horrible idea. Won't catch on. You can quote me on that.

[Unreal McCoy @ Dec 29th 2005 2:22PM]

yeah, the big news is the SD cards as well as the PDF format compatibility. Seems like this has the potential to be a fairly open device.

[james @ Dec 29th 2005 2:25PM]

Goodman, men are the biggest gadget heads? Are you serious? I've always seen the opposite - and been suprised: http://www.cnn.com/2004/TECH/ptech/01/16/women.gadgets.ap/

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/4536386.stm

[Brian @ Dec 29th 2005 2:31PM]

Goodman - While PDAs can be had for much less money in many instances, readability on their relatively small screens can't compare to these E Ink-based devices. Many people find the ability to carry several e-books at one time justification for their price when compared to traditional paper books. Hopefully, as demand for e-books increases, publishers will lower the prices of e-books.



Bill E. - Attorneys and other occupations that rely heavily on reference material are just one of the target markets of e-books as can be seen in some of the promotional material iRex has published on their site:



http://www.irextechnologies.com/faq.htm



If Sony does "muck it all up" as they did the first time in Japan with the Librie, at least competing devices like the iRex Iliad and Jinke Hanlin will be around as alternatives. I'm also hopeful that all of this competition in the e-book market and increased awareness will create more of an outcry for open source readers and non-DRM'd content, with the likes of OpenReader http://openreader.org/ becoming the beneficiaries.

[Yes @ Dec 29th 2005 2:36PM]

For some reason I still see a few hard copies floating around for the next thousand years. Lawyers, especially would need 'originals'. Have we come up with a way to certify that a file is an original?

[JosephG @ Dec 29th 2005 2:40PM]

They should not market to the general public, but to schools. Would save tons of money now spent on text books.



Also, form factor is ok, but it needs a cover that hinges open like a real book.

[TheGuyNextDoor @ Dec 29th 2005 2:55PM]

#12 & #14



You've hit the nail on the proverbial head.



Sony have now got MemoryStick, Compact Flash and now the most popular of them all SD appearing in it's products.



Are we truly seeing the dawn of a new Sony? One that seems to look to offer.... .... what the customer wants?



Time will tell, but the signs are good. At least they've had the kahuna's to try things their own way. You don't get anywhere in this world by resting on your laurels.

[Brad Rellinger @ Dec 29th 2005 2:56PM]

While I can't see this completely replacing books or paper in general, I can see it replacing newspapers. Image if you woke and every newspaper that you wanted to read was already on your "ebook reader". you could have hundreds of newspapers or even blogs and web news. Ideally it would have wireless so that it could update throughout the day. Usually your morning newspaper is out of date by the time you go home for work. But if you "ebook reader" was updated you could have the latest news. Its just as portable as any newspaper, so people could use it on the commute to/from work, lunch, etc.



I say these devices will be here to stay, but they need to have the apps and services to be there before they catch on.

[Brian @ Dec 29th 2005 3:11PM]

The one thing i hate about PDA type things is the input. If this e-reader deal can let me scribble notes on the page, post it style, then im happy. And it better do it well - i should be able to write something lightning fast and not expect to get just one choppy line. If it can recognize my handwriting, great. If it cant, no big deal - i can certainly read it.

[Goodman @ Dec 29th 2005 3:19PM]

Yeah, schools would be a great market. But they can't afford it. These things are $300-$500 and that's before the content is added, which isn't significantly discounted. And their lifespan can't be more than 2-3 years given the pounding kids'll give these things. Better to just buy the kids a backpack, they need the exercise anyway.



Mind you, I like the idea of eBooks. If they can be made small (or at least compactable) and inexpensive (under $50) they might start to catch on. But right now their market is people who are willing to pay $300 so they can carry a lot more books with them at a time. Lawyers or doctors maybe, but if it's just for reference works, the small screens of a pda are probably adequate for most people.



And women are the gadget heads? Wouldn't know it to look at the reader comments at Engadget. But at least women have purses to carry around a monster like that.

[Goodman @ Dec 29th 2005 3:27PM]

Oh, and this thing needs support for html and AvantGo, so folks can read their favorite blogs, web pages and such. For the kind of money they're charging, they better support a lot of content.

[Lane @ Dec 29th 2005 3:41PM]

For some reason I still see a few hard copies floating around for the next thousand years. Lawyers, especially would need 'originals'. Have we come up with a way to certify that a file is an original?

Many federal courts in the United States already have transitioned to electronic filing of documents in PDF format, and the problem of the "original" is solved by a simple affidavit from the filing attorney. Having a quality reader on which you could store and carry all these documents would be a huge boon to those of us who have to create PDF documents for filing, and then have to print them out to carry them around and read them.

[jACK @ Dec 29th 2005 4:15PM]

Yes, schools. Perhaps not "kids" up to middle school, but even high-schools would benefit... and college most definitely. Consider that the average costs are over $900 per year for HS or a college freshman.

http://www.pirg.org/alerts/route.asp?id2=15578

http://www.maketextbooksaffordable.com/



As a recently graduate of an ongoing medical program, I will happily attest to the fact that I spent over $1k per year and had to carry TONS of textbooks (albiet not all at once.)



Note my prediction that there will be a consumer company that unveils a product in this vein at CES this coming January. Wishful thinking that it were an iPad!

[tomb @ Dec 29th 2005 4:19PM]

So I was flying from New York to Chicago last week and the guy next to me was filling in his sales visit updates



Turns out that his company (which he didn't name, but it's based in Seattle) is working with Sony on what sounds like this device



They are not just going after the ebooks stuff, but more the emagazines stuff - so imagine zinio or (shudder) newstand in something you can use on a subway/ bus/ plane - but with a (comparitively) usable legible screen vs the PDA size



Looks like Sony might have tried to build a bit of a baseball field before launch... so perhaps we'll all come and watch... (apologies to Mr K. Costner(!))

[john @ Dec 29th 2005 4:21PM]

I WAS saving up for a D-SLR, but if this is coming out in the next quarter my priorities may be shifting... Can't wait!

[Luke @ Dec 29th 2005 4:44PM]

Nice but if you have to look at computer screens all day, your need specticals changed every fortnight or so.

[TC @ Dec 29th 2005 5:34PM]

Agree totally with #20 - Ideally I'd love the reader to have some sort of wireless tech to intermittently download the latest news etc.- Imagine your emails in a caption box next to the morning news! And high schools / university sounds like a great idea, I'm sure the government could waive tax on the device and content. - Saves paper too.

[LC @ Dec 29th 2005 5:58PM]

"Are we truly seeing the dawn of a new Sony? One that seems to look to offer.... .... what the customer wants?"



I'd like to think so, but this is SONY we are talking about. It was only a couple of months ago that their whole secret rootkit installation was made public.

[popemello @ Dec 29th 2005 6:04PM]

oh no! Just received my Cybook - its actually nice in its "open source" format - fortunately, its got other uses...

[EatingPie @ Dec 29th 2005 7:08PM]

Until #16, all of the preceding comments illustrate an almost complete lack of understanding in terms of this technology.



E-Ink is not like any other electronic screen. It's "painted" once, and stays static. Just like the page of a book. Eye fatigue from the 60hz flashing of your LCD -- be it your Powerbook or your Palm -- is now gone.



Did I mention that it's just like the page of a book?



This is one of the primary reasons e-books haven't caught one before -- your Palm flashes at you, whether you notice it or not. Then there's the issue of form-factor and how much the screen holds vs. a paperback page.



These seemingly meaningless problems have held back all forms of electronic readers in the past. The Librie -- and presumably its competitors -- have eliminated many of the electronic book problems, thus opening it up to new potentials like never before.



-Pie

[Kevin @ Dec 29th 2005 9:23PM]

Hmm - Sony, eh? I'm still mad at them... Damned DRM Nazis!

[cy7 @ Dec 30th 2005 1:17AM]

if this thing can read comic as well, i will totally buy it. cuz im sick and tire watch my download comic on small pda screen!

[TheGuyNextDoor @ Dec 30th 2005 4:17AM]

#30 & #33



Arguably, that wasn't Sony, that was SonyBMG. They don't operate as one company... yet. And in the light of the rather rapid resolution of some of the legal issues over the dreaded DRM, I get the impression the big S is pulling the reigns in on it's subsiduary, as 2006 is a crucial year for Sony with product launches, and wouldn't want the bad press of DRM getting in the way of CELL, BluRay and Playstation3 brand marketing. It would make sense.



And you think you've got DRM problems with SonyBMG? Just wait until Vista launches! lol

[John Steven @ Dec 30th 2005 7:32AM]

I read in my good old dead-tree version of the New York Times back in October a column outlining the self-evident notion that print needs its own iPod, as the vehicle for newspapers and similar media constructs to finally transcend their analog hardcopy legacy and fully embrace a portable digital future (an issue also splashed onto the front page of the Business section that day). Leaving aside the hardware limitations of current tablet technology such as battery life, heat dissipation, and e-ink display, I agree that when someone finally does get the form-factor, user interface, and content retrieval for such a text viewpad right - as Apple did with the iPod for audio - it's going to be revolutionary.



I'm not too enthused with the offerings for ebook readers I've seen... probably because they're built around the concept of the book and as such, their screens are still way too small for my liking (most being basically modified PDAs). What I'd really want is a display around the size of a standard sheet of paper (8x11 inches) and maybe a little thicker than a typical laptop screen, with USB connectivity and slots for flash memory cards. Instead of hinging in the middle like a book, there would be a thin latchable flipcover screenprotector that would fold completely over the back of the unit. Minimal control navigation, think touchsensitive clickwheel ala the iPod, "a device for data consumption, not data entry - all screen, no baggage" as the column posits. And that means any type of data consumption, being able to display the gamut from plain textfile to wordprocessor documents to HTML reader to adobe PDFs. There should be the ability to highlight and cut/paste to a 'save note' file as well as saving bookmarks, all of which would be easily exported. Perhaps most importantly is a change from the clunky methods through which current ebooks seem to be made available, toward using the podcast model instead! I would pay... oh, fifty cents each for a downloadable personalized podprint version of the Times and Washington Post (or any other newspaper or magazine worldwide for that matter) every day, where all I would need to do is let my viewpad sync up with the iText software on my computer, transferring my preferred newsmix while I'm showering in the morning. But that's not all, because it's also going to be collecting the overnight RSS feeds for the weblogs you read and anything else which uses the syndication standard - what your friends posted on LiveJournal last night, favorite online comics, a list of new thread topics on messageboards you visit, the day's detailed weather forecast, latest eBay auctions for items you're in the market for, disturbing Harry Potter slash fanfiction, whatever you want.



Though I personally don't desire it, I know a lot of others would be clamoring for the viewpad to include wifi access to teh intarwebs and the ability to continually update... eh, that could be nice but I don't see it as absolutely necessary (just as an iPod doesn't need to go online and get a radiostream). If you require that kind of connectivity and the capability to browse around and/or reply to what you read, just go ahead and lug around a laptop. The point of the viewpad would be a reader to be whipped out and perused anywhere with a minimum of fuss - on the train during a morning commute, during downtime at work, while out to lunch, hanging out with friends, at home comfy on the couch, wherever you are.

[Jon Acheson @ Dec 30th 2005 10:10AM]

What I really see as a killer app for this, in Japan at least, is manga.



Download a manga anthology, read on the train, and delete, all for a fraction of the cost of a printed anthology.

[Lane @ Dec 30th 2005 11:47AM]

I would probably pay a billion dollars for the mythical device that John Steven has described.

[Fred @ Dec 30th 2005 8:24PM]

Just wait for Hanlin and iRex. They will be far more open, probably much cheaper, and they aren't put out by the Rootkit Company. I'll be thrilled to replace my PocketPC as an ebook reader, but this device won't do it.



Sony is the dumbest bunch of smart people on the planet...here in Japan they can only sell their DAPs at a discount..my students don't like them because they won't natively play MP3s, so the battery life is awful when playing ripped music.

[Fzzt @ Dec 30th 2005 9:25PM]

This is great news! Plus Sony has at least a commitment from 2 big publishers for content.



For those of you who think this is the same as reading documents on a normal computer or handheld, it's not.

Think of it as a computer driven etch-a-sketch but with better resolution & contrast. You won't be watching videos on these devices anytime soon.

Just google e-ink and you can get up to speed on this.

[edtekker @ Dec 30th 2005 11:34PM]

Thank you, Pie. I was getting really frustrated by the lack of awareness in the comments. Not only do the screens not flicker, but the resolution is between 100 and 150 dpi, significantly higher than LCD or CRT displays. As to the pricepoint, $300-500 is very affordable for many schools, particularly if the textbook publishers will give the districts a reduced price for the electronic version of their texts. Some districts are buying laptops for kids, and this would be a lot less expensive with a lot less maintenance overhead. The main reason PDAs never took off was because Palms and PocketPC cost almost as much to support as a full computer, but these streamlined puppies look to be more at the graphing calculator end of the support spectrum.



My major worry is in the BusinessWeek article, where the publishers apparently expect to charge slightly less than a mass paperback for the electronic version of a book. That's nuts. I'm willing to pay almost-CD prices for downloaded music because the convenience is so high, and I can always burn the music to a CD for a few cents if I want to. The cost of printing and distribution for books is much higher than for CDs, so I would think that there would be room for a lot more discounting. Otherwise, I can order up a used copy through Amazon for a lot less. For people to switch from real books to electronic, they either need to be a) significantly more convenient, and/or b) significantly less expensive.



After all, we've used books in their present form for around 1,000 years. To break a habit of that duration takes a big push.

[bliz @ Dec 31st 2005 11:25AM]

Proprietary Sony format? What's with Sony & proprietary...luckily it's SD and not memory stick...

[Bertrand Laurence @ Dec 31st 2005 11:07PM]

While talking about Vinyl Lp's vs CD's Frank Zappa used to speak about how people would miss the "Fetish Fondling Factor", the size , the art, the feel ect...

While I do enjoy the feel and smell of paper, books to me are a lot more restful, more "inert", wamer objects.

Poetically , sensually speaking, the cold luminosity, the buzzing electromagnetic field and the very nature of an electronic apparatus are not very condusive to a fully quiet, meditative moment.

BL

[barry.b @ Jan 4th 2006 8:37PM]

if I can scan* an e-Book as fast as I can a physical book by flipping thru the pages (and not suffering slow page reloads) then I'm interested.



there's no point going backwards in using the thing...



*eg: like speed reading: looking for an image or a heading or a block of code, etc.



my 2c only

[Al @ Jan 8th 2006 2:58PM]

We bought the RCA EBook in 2001 for more than the current Sony Reader. My wife loved it and she still raves to others about it. Sadly, it isn't the technology that is the biggest problem, it is getting the content. Gemstar ceased operation in 2002 and she can't her hands on any more Ebooks. Until the industry figures out how to have an open or encrypted document standard for these devices, people are taking a big risk buying the device. I would want a guarantee of 20 years of new, current Ebook titles and on line tech support before I buy any new EBook reader.

[Mikel @ Jan 10th 2006 1:54PM]

Where on the net is Sony's content site? I keep hearing about "connectbooks.com" but that is not a Sony site. Can anyone give me an accurate URL? Thanks.

[A.R.Yngve @ Jan 24th 2006 9:50AM]

What I want to know is, will the Big Publishing industry try to block access to text they don't own, with various restrictions and "special deals" with Sony?

Imagine that you could read all the free Public Domain books on The Gutenberg Project on your Sony Reader. Great! Except this is NOT promised.

I have been hoping for e-ink for years, but I worry that the publishing industry will attempt to p*** their territory around every device... which will doom the Sony Reader to a slow death.
:-(