Critical.
Authoritative.
Strategic.
Subscribe to CIO Magazine »

Sony trumps Amazon with e-book reader

Though for e-books to catch on, a common, open format for the books and less-expensive, even thinner hardware readers are needed

E-books are doubtless the future of reading, and Sony's newest device, the "Reader Daily Edition" makes good by supporting on open e-book format. But, ouch, the sticker shock!

Yes, I know what books cost. I have a house full of books and stagger to think how much I have spent on them, how much room they require for housing, and how hard is it for me to part with even a single one of them.

A real optimist, I've been told, is someone who buys more books than they can ever hope to read. By that standard, I am an incredible optimist.

Available in December at US$399, the Sony Daily Edition has much to recommend it. First, it isn't an Amazon Kindle. That means it doesn't tie you to Amazon's proprietary e-book format. That, however, also means you don't have access to all the books already available in that format and not available in ePub, which Sony supports.

Amazon claims 300,000 books are available in Kindle format. I could not find a good estimate for the number of titles available in ePub, though it must be vastly smaller at the present time.

The new Sony features a 7-inch screen. I would expect the $399 price now being quoted to be discounted when the unit is actually available for sale. By comparison, Amazon's Kindle has a 6-inch screen and sells for $299. The Kindle DX, with its 9.7-inch screen sells for $489.

I am not enough of an e-book expert to know whether there is enough content in the open ePub format that Sony uses to drive sales this Christmas. One important difference between Sony and Amazon is that, being primarily a hardware company, Sony is happy to work with OverDrive to provide access to ePub-formatted books through public libraries.

This, alone, may be reason enough to buy Sony and is a big moral win over Amazon.

Here's how it works: Check the book out online and on the due date the book simply expires from your reader. When e-readers are popularly-priced, this feature could make public libraries much more relevant to modern reader's needs, though publishers' licensing restrictions could become an issue.

I hope Jeff Bezos will realize that his proprietary Kindle e-book format has "1970" written all over it. Maybe even "1965". For e-books to catch on, as I believe they will, we need a common, open format for the books and less-expensive, even thinner hardware readers.

Sony is on the right track. Amazon, though presently the market leader, is not.

Industry veteran David Coursey tweets as @techinciter and can be contacted via his Web site.

Join the CIO Australia group on LinkedIn. The group is open to CIOs, IT Directors, COOs, CTOs and senior IT managers.

More about: Amazon, Amazon.com, DX, Sony, Sony Corporation
References show all

Comments

Post new comment

The content of this field is kept private and will not be shown publicly.
Users posting comments agree to the CIO comments policy.
Login or register to link comments to your user profile, or you may also post a comment without being logged in.
Related Coverage
Related Whitepapers
Latest Stories
Community Comments
Tags: amazon, e-book, Reader Daily Edition, sony
Latest Blog Posts
Whitepapers
  • Spear Phishing Attacks - Why they are successful and how to stop them
    There's been a rapid shift from broad, scattershot attacks to advanced target attacks that have had serious consequences for victim organisations. The increased use of spear phishing is directly related to the fact that it works, as traditional security defences simply do not stop these types of attacks. This paper provides a detailed look at how spear phishing is used within advanced attacks and the key capabilities organisations need in order to effectively combat these emerging and evolving threats.
    Learn more »
  • Cloud printing in the enterprise: liberating the mobile print experience from cables, operating systems and physical boundaries
    In recent years mobile technology has proliferated throughout the enterprise. Today, virtually no one in the workforce is bound to a desk to work, check e-mail or communicate with co-workers and customers. At the same time, we’re seeing the rise of cloud technologies, loosely defined as online resources, often provided as a service, that manage the data and software that used to run solely on PCs. This merger of mobile and cloud technologies is on its way to becoming one of most significant enablers of business productivity and innovation seen in the past decade. Read more.
    Learn more »
  • A Data Center Fabric Is Critical to a Next-Generation Unified Data Center
    The data center has gone through several major evolutionary changes over the past several decades, and each change has been defined by major shifts in computing. The shift to a virtual data center will be the single biggest transition in the history of computing. This transition will reshape all the major data center tiers: applications, storage, servers and the network. This paper examines the drivers of this transition, provides real-world case studies and includes data centre fabric best practices.
    Learn more »
All whitepapers
rhs_login_lockGet exclusive access to Invitation only events CIO, reports & analysis.
Recent comments