Sony's New PRS-700 eReader: Touch Screen Nice, Where's Wireless?

The new PRS-700 eReader was the subject of Sony's big announcement last week (press release here).  The touch screen feature is cool but I'm not convinced it's a game-changer. I use my Kindle every day and I've never felt the lack of a touch screen was a big drawback.

On the other hand, I can't imagine the Kindle without its wireless connectivity feature.  The Kindle is almost a year old and Sony's had all this time to work on a wireless strategy to compete with Amazon.  I admire the distribution model Sony has built (Borders and Target stores), but how could they introduce their "third generation reader" without wireless?!

Comments

[Alain Pierrot]

Well, kind of, it's a choice: either you team with the Borders of this world to push hardware — and you skip mobile link — or you deal with connectivity providers, and you're no longer good friends with brick & mortar, don't you agree?

[Joe Wikert]

No, there's no good reason Sony can't offer wireless and sell through Borders. It might mean they (Sony) have to give a portion of the book sales to their retail partner (Borders/Target), depending on where the device was bought. Or maybe not... Either way, I definitely do not feel wireless functionality and retail distribution are mutually exclusive.

[Michael Covington]

I would agree that they should have added wireless, although I don't know that they are trying to capture the Kindle owner's business, after all you already own a reader, are you going to drop a few more hundred bucks on another one? I think they are banking on their distribution model to help them capture share. I was in Target a couple of days ago and stopped at the eReader endcap, my wife had never touched one before so it was a cool experience. I think there is much to be said for offering it through brick and mortar. They will just need to figure out how to give that retailer a kick-back for downloaded books on devices activated through that retailer.

[Anthony S. Policastro]

Hi,
I would agree that this new Sony eReader should have had wireless, but I think it was probably in the works before they considered adding wireless and too late to shift gears. However, I would be blown away if the next model did not have wireless, especially with Sony's joint venture with Ericsson, the giant mobile phone manufacturer.

I also agree with Michael Covington that Sony has a clear advantage by selling the eReader in bricks and mortal locations. Guess what the topic of discussion was on the Kindle forum a few days ago? The users were asking each other if anyone knew of people in their perspective cities who owned a Kindle because they wanted to see and feel it before shelling out $359 plus shipping and tax.

[Jack Illingworth]

Leaving wireless out does have one upside for Sony -- it makes it much easier for them to move the product outside of the USA. They're getting an early start in Canada, the UK, and France, while the Kindle is nonexistent in those territories.

[William F. Aicher]

The lack of wireless is why I decided to go with my Kindle instead of the Sony one. Even though Sony's is sleeker and feels nicer, the wireless is so crucial. If I had to go to my computer to transfer books in every time I wanted a new one, I would never use the device.

[Peter Rubie]

I work in the publishing industry, and this is an area I have been focused on for some time now. I have had a Sony PRS 500 since they came out and use it for reading manuscripts and proposal all the time, something the Kindle doesn't do nearly as easily (though I have a colleague who loves hers which she acquired recently). I think you guys are missing a vital point here: Amazon has always regarded the Kindle as merely an extension of their ability to sell product from their online store, NOT as a vanguard attempt to change the landscape of reading, which is sort of a side issue for them. It means that all publishers MUST sell their prioduct through one source -- Amazon -- and that is an untenable business model for anyone EXCEPT Amazon, and thus is not likely to last very long. Sony, on the other hand, rather clumsily and cautiously I admit, have consciously aimed at trying to reinvent the way we read by making the Reader as open as possible. Their weakness is that they don't have the book base yet that Amazon has but doing business with multiple publishers makes much more sense to the publishers. One can easily criticize Sony for the whimpy way they've gone about this, DRMing their downloads which are not easily moved onto another machine and are rather overpriced (blame the publishers for this, though), but inch by painful inch Sony really are trying to get traction in a field that frankly is inevitable from an economic perspective as far as publishers are concerned. Publishers, who are not the swiftest when it comes to embracing technology in their industry, have an enormous amount to gain by embracing ebooks as an ALTERNATIVE format to the current book forms out there, particularly in the area of mass market, genre paperbacks and enhanced versions of classics, many of which are already available for download to the Sony much more easily than on the Kindle. (I'm sorry, I really don't see the argument that emailing an attachment to oneself is any easier than just drop and dragging it via a usb connection.) The argument about bluetooth/wi fi, and usb connection is a little bit to the side of the main argument about the viability of eReaders in the larger scheme of things. It's a bit like complaining that not all 78rpm records are hi fi yet. Look at what iRex are proposing for next year, and Plastic Logic. Meanwhile, eInk, who make the screens everyone uses are planning on having 12 inch or larger colour screens by the end of 09 with luck, and they intend to go into the magazine market. That means, for example, that the Christian Science Monitor which just announced it's stopping its print edition next April will be available in an electronic paper form fairly soon after quitting real paper. It's all a generational movement to get us used to e-paper.

[Alan Carton]

As a person in UK who does not have access to Kindle, I am not bothered by the fact that the Sony Devices do not have wireless. The bigger issue for me is that the Kindle has the ability to read magazines, while the sony machines do not (unless you are lucky enough that the magazines or newspapers you read are available in PDF or other supported format. The magazines I read are normally only available in a specific format, for use on a specific software reader available for mobile devices, PC or Mac. The fact that the screen is black and white does not bother me so much either, as long as it is a format that I can either look at on the reader or on a PC. I can read the magazine on the go, and if I want to check out a picture, I can always look at it on a computer. I would be more interested in ability to read content on the eReader than wireless ability. I mean, a bookshop could always sell an SD card with a book on it, or provide a kiosk that you can plug into to buy a book when in an airport. Personally, when I am travelling, I make sure I have enough books before I leave.

[NicW]

for portable use they are both far to big. I use my iPhone for reading, its handy, its in my pocket, its wireless, via free apps such as Stanza I can buy new book wirelessly, download free ones, download newspapers, add my own web links for books. As I charge my iPhone every night battery use is not a problem as the charge lasts me all day. Its color, I can see pictures, I can click web links within books, I can "pinch" to enlarge. Although its smaller that is a benefit as stated before its always in my pocket and being backlit its very clear. Background color, text color, font style, font size can all be changed, touch screen areas can be configured to do what you want, I can listed to music while reading on the same device. etc etc etc. Dump these huge devices and go iPhone much better,

[D Brown]

I just bought and returned a Kindle DX becasue of the truly horrible gray background screen color. There is a reason why books, newspapers, the web, etc. use black on white type. I've read that you get used to the (very) dark background- but why? The free iTouch Kindle app is black on white and it's perfect. If the Sony reader is black on white or even cream color I'll buy it. What good is wireless and all those whistles and bells if you can't read the book?