Will Sony soon have a PRS-505 replacement?
(Credit: Sony)In recent weeks there's been lots of news about new e-readers hitting the market. The Cool-er is out. Samsung's just released its first e-book reader in Korea. Plastic Logic is talking up its partnerships with Barnes & Noble and AT&T. And the Kindle 2 had a price drop to $299.
But what's up with Sony? True, its $400 PRS-700 hasn't been out that long, but surely the company has to put out a new e-reader sometime soon or risk losing that precious piece of market and mind share it currently enjoys in the e-reader space?
Well, we've barely heard a peep about a new Reader, but there's been a little activity over on the MobileRead forums. Back in June forum member forkyfork wrote he heard from a manager at Books-a-Million that Sony is coming out with a new e-reader in August. The manager "mentioned that it's going to have Wi-Fi, bigger screen, and more memory. When I asked him if it would have a touch screen, he said 'no.' When asked what the price point would be, he said 'most likely $300,' which might explain why they [Sony] are trying to clear out the PRS-505's now."
Now, it's hard to put much stock in a message board comment from a random reader, especially one who goes by forkyfork, but I've heard from a few sources outside Sony that they expect Sony to have something new fairly soon. So, why not August?
Hopefully, the new Reader, whenever it does arrive, will only be sightly larger and not blown up to the size of the Kindle DX.
When it released the PRS-700, Sony did talk about how it was looking at a wireless option, so it would seem likely that its next model would offer this feature. Also, while we like the touch-screen interface of the PRS-700, the screen did suffer from glare and contrast issues. We also assume a nontouch model would be cheaper to produce, which would help Sony keep the retail price of a new model under $300. At this point, it really needs to match the Kindle 2's price or better yet, go slightly cheaper.
Comments?
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Ever since rumors--and some alleged photos--of Amazon's next-generation Kindle digital reader hit the Web late last year, I keep getting e-mails from readers asking me for buying advice. Here's a typical note:
Hi, David:
Around Christmas, I ordered the Amazon Kindle, but as I'm sure you know, it's back-ordered for a couple of months. Then I saw your article on the Kindle 2 coming out soon and I'm not sure what to do. Should I cancel my order? If the new Kindle 2 comes out right after I get mine, will I be able to return it?
Thanks for your help,
Susan
I understand where Susan's coming from. The Kindle's $359 right now--a decent chunk of change in a tight economy. And nothing sucks more than getting your timing wrong on the release of the next version of a product, particularly when you're dealing with a first-gen device like the Kindle that has room for improvement.
It's hard to say exactly who's to blame for this little mess, but any way you look at it Amazon has an interesting problem on its hands. If the company confirms that a new product is on the way, it potentially kills sales of the existing product. And if it puts out a product without warning its customers that a new product is coming, it risks alienating its customers.
Last month Boy Genius Report got its hands on some photos of what appeared to be the Kindle 2, so speculation was rampant that Amazon would release a new Kindle for the holidays. However, Amazon has continually denied it would have a new Kindle in 2008, and it seems clear that no new device is imminent. Today, though, Crunch Gear, which put out the original rumor on the Kindle 2, is now saying that it has it on good authority that the Kindle 2 will show up early next year.
Crunch Gear's founder Michael Arrington writes, "It was scheduled to be released in October in time for this holiday season, but Bezos himself reportedly pulled the plug for last minute changes to the software. Our sources now say it's tentatively scheduled to go on sale in 'early next quarter.'"
Crunch Gear turned out to be wrong last time, but the good news is everybody's expecting this thing to come out early next year, so chances are Arrington's probably right--or at least tentatively right. And heck, it doesn't take a Boy Genius to figure out that a Kindle 2 (and maybe even a Kindle 3) will come out in 2009.
What's a little lost in all this is that people haven't been all that impressed with what they've seen from the leaked images of the Kindle 2 (if it is indeed the Kindle 2). On the surface, it doesn't seem to be that much of an improvement over the original Kindle, but perhaps Amazon has been able to lower the price on the unit and add features we don't know about.
In the meantime, Sony's $400 PRS-700 Digital Reader is now available for sale. Our review is due to post shortly, and while the new Sony is sleeker than the Kindle, has a touch screen, and plenty of other other improvements, a couple of screen issues prevent it from truly giving the Kindle a run for its money. Perhaps if Sony really had a Kindle-killer, Bezos would have been more aggressive about releasing a new model.*
See, this whole speculation thing is easy. Please feel free to comment.
*Correction: As a reader points out, the Kindle is sold out through the holidays and Amazon isn't,"sitting on a ton of Kindles it has to move during the holiday season" as I originally suggested.
After rumors surfaced on the Web a few months back that a new Kindle might be on the way, Amazon.com did its best to shoot them down, saying a new Kindle was not coming this year. Well, Boy Genius Report has gotten a hold of some photos that appear to be the Kindle 2, so we're curious what Amazon has to say now.
From the looks of the new device, Amazon has tried to address some of the criticisms of the Kindle, most of which revolve around its somewhat homely design and a few poorly placed buttons. The shape has been modified to make the new Kindle more attractive, but it appears Amazon is sticking with the same off-white color scheme--for better or worse.
The Boy Genius Report's mole or "ninja," has some comments about the new Kindle. First, ninja says the device is basically the same size as the older model, but is thinner and has "a slightly heavier feel, and it feels much sturdier." The source indicates the new model uses the same cellular EV-DO network for downloads (it's Sprint's network in the current model) and a metal back is visible in some of the pictures. I particularly appreciated the look of the new leather carrying pouch for the device, since I don't like the existing Kindle's protective case. There are more photos here.
Boy Genius Report also notes:
As far as buttons go, on the right side, the bottoms from top to bottom are: Home, Next Page, Menu, a joystick, and Undo. On the left side, there's Previous, Page, and Next Page. We're told the buttons are significantly smaller, to avoid accidental page turning. The joystick takes the place of the scroll wheel and it "takes a little getting used to." As far as the redesigned keyboard...it "has a good layout, but lettering on the keys could be darker." Continuing our tour around the unit, next to the sliding sleep button, there's the headphone jack, and on the right-side edge you've got the volume up/down buttons. What's interesting (and you can see this in the photos) is that the backside of the unit is mostly metal, with the speakers at the bottom of the back. One more plus? They've finally ditched their own charger. The Kindle 2 can be charged with a miniUSB cable.
No word on when the next-generation Kindle will arrive, whether there will be a European model, or how much it will cost. However, I have a feeling we'll soon get an announcement from Amazon--if indeed this turns out to be a real product that will go up against the upcoming Sony Reader, the PRS-700, which features a touch-screen display and will hit stores next month in time for the holiday buying season.
As always, feel free to post your comments. What do you think of the design of the alleged Kindle 2? And how much do you think it will cost?
I don't know if there's a Guinness Book of Records world record at stake here, but as part of its effort to promote its digital book readers, including the just-announced PRS-700, Sony has "memory expert" Dave Farrow sitting in a window display in New York reading books all day for the month of October.
"One man. One revolutionary cause. 30 days."
(Credit: Sony)As we reported Thursday, the sit-in--or read-in--is timed to commemorate National Book Month and promote literacy in schools. According to Sony, for every one of Farrow's page turns, Sony will provide a set of 100 eBook classics to a school or education institution.
Of course, if endurance artist David Blaine were performing the same stunt, he'd probably never leave the window, but it should be pointed out that Farrow will get plenty of breaks--and not just of the potty variety. Apparently, Sony is allowing anybody to get in the window and read for a bit, so Farrow will get some time to leave the rather small space he is inhabiting.
Sony has a live Webcam that's pretty amusing with both an interior view inside the window (with sound) and a street-view perspective. Check it out.
When we found out a couple of weeks ago that Sony was going have a Reader event in New York on October 2, we assumed--but weren't entirely sure--that the company would be announcing a new electronic book reader. Well, Sony has introduced a new Reader, the PRS-700, and I got to play around with it at the event.
Before I get into impressions, let's start with the highlights: As rumored, the PRS-700 has a built-in LED "reading" light (though it's not a backlight). There are no wireless capabilities, but Sony's moved to a 6-inch touch-screen display. Also, the new Reader has expanded built-in memory (up to 350 books) while retaining its Memory Stick Duo slot.
The new Sony PRS-700 has a touch-screen and built-in light.
(Credit: Sony)It's zippier, too--when you turn a page, the e-ink on the screen refreshes faster (we were told the PRS-700 has a faster processor than the earlier PRS-505, but we're waiting to confirm what the processor is). All of these upgrades add up to a higher price tag: the new Reader will retail for $400 when it comes out in November. That's over $100 more than what you can get the PRS-505 for today.
If you can ignore the high price for a second, the PRS700 is definitely a step forward for Sony in the digital-reader arena. If ever there was device that would benefit from the switch to touch-screen navigation, it's an e-book reader (Irex was the first with an e-ink touch-screen display, but that device was prohibitively expensive).
Like the iPhone and other next-gen touch-screen phones that have been appearing lately, the Reader incorporates some gesture-based commands. You can swipe your finger across the display to page forward or back (you can choose between a left or right swipe to advance pages in the settings menu). Swiping and holding your finger down at the end of the swipe allows you to advance or rewind through pages at a fast clip.
With the included stylus or your finger you can highlight words and add annotations via a virtual keyboard. The Amazon Kindle offers this feature via a Blackberry-style keyboard. However, the Kindle doesn't have a touch screen.
It's also worth noting that Sony is continuing with its effort to brand its Readers as "open" devices that are capable of reading multiple file formats. The press release says: "With the included eBook Library 2.5 PC software, you can easily transfer Adobe PDF documents with reflow capability, Microsoft Word documents, BBeB files and other text file formats to the Reader. The device can store and display EPUB files and work with Adobe Digital Editions software, opening it up to almost a limitless quantity of content."
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