Just a few days ago, Sony executive Phil Lubell told Bloomberg that the company has two new ereader devices launching “probably” in August. Now the company appears to be backtracking on that statement, according to a response it sent to VentureBeat today.
VentureBeat’s article, published yesterday, looked at Sony’s poor performance in the ereader wars compared to Amazon and Barnes & Noble, despite having a head start. There’s not a lot of new information for the Teleread audience. However, Sony took issue with the article and responded with this:
It is true that Sony is committed to the Reader category and believes there is a market for both tablets and dedicated e-readers. And, since we have historically released new Readers every year since our initial launch, it is reasonable to assume we will do so again this year. However, the details about a new Sony Reader included in this article are inaccurate. We have not released any pricing, timing or features of a new Sony Reader. When we do have Sony Reader news, we will share all the details with you.
VentureBeat updated their article with the information, but added, “We’re keeping the original report because Sony may just be covering for an unannounced leak.” Either way, I bet Lubell has had an interesting past few days.
It is interesting how troubled the market share for Sony readers has been. This is an accomplished consumer electronics company yet Amazon, Barnes & Noble and, now, Google have all secured growing segments of the device market. Could it be that there is a helix relationship between the reading format and the content provider? Is this the lurking premise of publishing? If so another question is how does Amazon, Barnes & Noble and Google each and collectively represent publishing enterprise? Framed this way many realizations leap into view. These “publishers” outsource to publishers yet provide alluring and efficient channels publishing success and new readership markets. There is also the quirky surprise that the screen as a most disembodied delivery format for a book may present a very embodied product as a physical device. Here is a distinctively new product in the codex line; a thing that is not a book alone but a well packaged, well advised and well admired thing pure and simple. It many even be possible to sell them everywhere and frequently!