Sony has been selling its e-readers in other markets for almost six years, but it’s only now realizing Australia is also keen on reading e-books.
I never thought e-readers would take off the way they have. If you’d have asked me just five years ago whether books made from paper and card would ever be replaced in the hearts of many people by electronic versions, I’d have thought you were mad. And yet that is what has happened.
Don’t mistake me: traditional books aren’t about to disappear. In fact, I suspect many of us will hold out on moving to digital book formats longer than we will on moving to digital music and video. Because there’s something special about a book, and it isn’t limited to just the story inside.
Having said that e-readers and the e-book content they display is now big business. Which is why so many tech manufacturers are launching their own e-readers or tablet devices.
Sony is just one of them, but it’s taken the Japanese tech giant rather a long time to release its e-reader wares in Australia.
Sony has unveiled its new line of e-readers, all of which boast the E-Ink Pearl display. And even its cheapest offering, the Reader Pocket Edition, is getting a shiny new touchscreen which uses an infrared sensor to detect input. This eliminates the need for the overlay which caused many of the earlier Sony e-readers to develop annoying faults.
The new Sony e-readers have also been given a makeover, made lighter and more compact, and added support for the open-source ePub format. Pricing still seems to be an issues, however, with prices starting at $179. Amazon has upped its game and entered into a price war, but Sony seems to be resisting even trying to compete at this stage.
Even so, the best news is that the Sony Reader e-readers are going to be available to buy in Australia at all, as Sony has until now completely ignored us.
