New Sony Reader – and a renewed commitment

Yesterday I attended the Sony press event announcing the release of their new PRS700 ebook reader, to be priced at $399. Pictured above is Steve Haber, President of the Digital Reading Business Division, who made the presentation.

There has been a lot of talk about the new hardware on the net, and I’ll speak about it in a bit, but there was far more important news that came out of the event. It is now clear, beyond a shadow of a doubt, that Sony is committed to ebooks and the Reader platform. This gives all us ebook mavens a reason to contemplate the future with optimism.

Let’s look, first, at who attended. Along with the press were representatives of Harlequin, Penguin, Random House, Hachette and Harper Collins. What does that tell you?

Next, it is clear from Sony’s organizational structure that there is a strong commitment to the product. The product division has been moved from Japan to the US, with Steve as President. As someone who has spent a fair amount of time working in Japan, and with Japanese companies, I can tell you that this is a major coup. Further, the entire operation has been consolidated under one division – book service, hardware, software and the web site, all formerly managed by different groups, have been combined. Again, a corporate restructuring which typically is only done when a company is deeply committed to a product. Steve mentioned to me that Howard Stringer, Chairman and CEO of Sony America, is well aware the the Reader and is committed to the product.

Last year Sony had about 700 outlets for the Reader, this year they are expecting to have about 3,000 in the holiday season. Further, they have hired 1,000 people to do in-store trials and demos and to introduce the public to the Reader. According to Steve once the public actually sees and understands the Reader they love the idea. But presented on its own, on a display, people don’t seem to understand quite what it is all about. By the way, Steve said that they have sold hundreds of thousands of Readers, and millions of ebooks. No exact number was given.

In addition, Steve reported that there will be a major update to their ebook store by the end of October, including a better look and a vastly improved search function. He said that there are currently about 50,000 books in the store and he is going to have about 100,000 by the holiday season. (Note the publishers I mentioned above.)

As to the hardware, I’m sure you have already read the details on Engadget, etc. – touch screen, two level book light, swipe or push a button to change pages, direct access search, highlighting, 5 fonts, note taking function. Most of the sites I’ve read have the release date wrong (confusing it with the Sony site update). The correct date is the end of November.

Two further things. The new Reader is fast, fast and faster. Compared to the older Reader and the Kindle it is like a Ferrari vs. a bicycle. It is amazing how quick it is. Also, there is no flicker or “blink” when you change pages. This is a major ergonomic improvement over earlier versions. A representative of E-ink, who makes the screen, was at the event and I cornered him and asked him how Sony accomplished this. He said it was a combination of Sony proprietary technology and some small improvements in the E-ink screen. Primarily, he said, this is a result of Sony’s expertise in writing an optimized driver and in designing the display chip and optimizing timing issues. This, I would guess, is going to be extremely difficult for competitors to do for themselves.

Finally, there will be a wireless version. Steve said this is down the road because they want to launch wireless on a open platform. That is one that will have different bookstores and book suppliers, not just the Sony store. This will take a bit of time to set up. No target date was given.

Conclusion: this was an exciting event in that the commitment of a giant like Sony, played off against the competition of another giant, Amazon, will advance the cause of ebooks at a faster rate than was possible. In chatting with Steve he said he has worked for Sony for 20 years and has long experience with products that are “before their time” such as MP3s, CDs and digital cameras. He feels that ebooks are now “at their time” or only a short way from it. Let’s hope Amazon and Sony go at it fiercely, because we will be the beneficiaries.