Sony Pocket Reader selling for $99.99 - The Touch, soon at $120?

Was working on a short entry on 3G wireless vs WiFi but I'll get that done for the morning. In the meantime!...

CNet's Rick Broida writes that SEARS of all places has the 5" Sony Pocket Reader, PRS 300, available for $99.99 or effectively $100 :-)

This is selling for $135 at Amazon, and at that price can't compete with the Kindle or the Nook.  $100 is another matter.

Advantages
. Reads ePub and many other file formats
. Connects with Adobe Digital Editions (ADE) so should work with public library
     Overdrive-program e-books
. Pocketable, in large pockets :-) -- definitely the most portable
. Excellent display

Disadvantages:
. 5" screen is smaller than Nook or Amazon's 6" models but that makes it more pocketable
. No Wireless -- no Wifi and no 3G Mobile wireless, unlike Nook/Kindle and more-costly Sonys.
     So, no downloading of books and of course no web lookups
. No Inline dictionary
. No Searching of books or device (for character name while reading)
. No highlighting or note-taking

For $100, this is a worthy 2nd reader or even a primary reader if none of the missing features are important to you and if you don't care to download books from the air or do web-lookups.

  With this model, you'd need to be able to download e-books to your computer and just move them over to the Sony with a USB cable.

MY take - The Sony Touch 600 is rumored to go down to $120 in some places soon.
  While that also has no wireless capability, it does have an inline dictionary, searching, and highlighting/note-taking capabilities.
  It also has a touchscreen.  Some really like that.  Others find that the touchscreen makes it less clear, less contrasty, and therefore harder to read.

I personally don't like to read an e-book anymore without the dictionary and search features, so I would be more likely to get the less clear Sony Touch when it's $120 but even then the screen might stop me.  However, many will jump at the opportunity to get a $99.99 reader, since a physical book has none of the "Disadvantages" listed either :-) and the library book capability it should have makes it very attractive as a non-primary reader.

Here's a thorough review of the Sony models by Will Rothman, if you want to see more pro's and con's.  But at this price, a public library-capable e-reader is a temptation, even if I'll wait for the Sony PRS600 to drop to $120.

I imagine Amazon will also lower Sony reader prices depending on whether they can work that out with Sony as Sears did.  Right now pricing hasn't been lowered at non-Sears stores but I imagine that'll happen any hour.


Kindle 3   (UK: Kindle 3),   DX Graphite

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E-Readers are the holiday's hot ticket - Sony vs Kindle report

L.A. Times predicts
E-Readers are the holiday's
hot ticket.

 Worth quoting:

' Acording to an online survey, 1 in 5 shoppers said they planned to buy an electronic book reader such as a Sony Reader or Amazon Kindle this year.

  When asked what they would like to get as a gift this year, about 1 in 10 cited a digital book reader.

  Portable music players, once the hot holiday ticket, got just 3.4% of the vote, while game consoles came in at 6%, according to the survey commissioned by Retrevo, a gadget review website...

  Of those who said they planned to spring for an electronic book reader, 62% said they would buy Amazon's Kindle 2 or Kindle DX, while 32% favored the Sony Reader... '

One has to wonder if the Sony Readers' presence in stores will increase its percentage of sales over expectations?


NEW-SONY-READERS VS KINDLES - REVIEW BY GIZMODO
Amazon sells Sonys as well as Kindles, but most reviews have been pretty hard on the Sonys.  And the Sony Daily Edition (PRS-2121) won't be released until approximately December.

Gizmodo's review headline: "Too Many Compromises."  Wilson Rothman writes:
  the Sony Touch is "overloaded with tricks but killed by glare"
  and the Sony Pocket is "simplified past the point of goodness."

Rothman's right; few reviewers notice that the Pocket Edition has no study tools (highlighting, notes, searches, in-line dictionary active during a reading session) and of course no whispernet either but they then equate the Sony Pocket with the Kindle 2 for less cost ($200) but they don't, unlike Rothman, let readers know the many reasons the unit is less expensive.

Re the Touch, he just really is put off by the glare caused by the addition of the layer for the touchscreen and writes that "Sony's problem with glare continues unabated." and for that reason he is not optimistic about the coming Daily Edition also with a touchscreen.

Still, some Sony users say that the PRS-600 Touch's glare problem is not as big a problem as was the PRS-700's and that all you need to do is angle it a bit differently when you see glare.

  But Rothman adds, amusingly: "lying in bed, with just my reading light on, I can see the perfect outline of my face.  Sure, I am handsome, but when I read a book, I expect to be staring only at words on the page, not my own lovely mug.  In a well-lit room, the glare from all sides is positively frustrating, and it shifts with every minor adjustment of my hand."  He mentions that the iRex manages to make a touchscreen without glare.

  After giving props to the Sony PRS-300 Pocket Edition for better screen contrast than on the Touch, he adds:
  "The Pocket's problem is that it is barebones to an almost insulting degree: No search, no dictionary, no card reader, no nothin'...
      I could actually live without all of those features save one: Search.
Keyword searching is to future readers what leafing around is to current ones.  Don't remember where you last saw the mysterious man in black?  Do a quick search..."

  Because of the lending-library feature due soon ("Overdrive" for e-books from the sets your local library carries -- one Amazon forum member had only 16 in the set at her library), he says "you could get the first reasonably budget reader."  But he ends with, "One thing is for sure, no matter who the competition is, Sony is going to have a rough holiday season if that Daily's screen is anything like the one on the Touch."

  I think that not many reviewers write such a thorough review on the features of all the e-readers -- so, many people won't be aware and Sony may do all right for that reason though there was buyers' remorse with the PRS-700 and they discontinued it earlier than expected.

There are several other long ones out there and I'll add more later on, as they add more detail in some areas.

Thanks to kindle2u for the tweet re the L.A. Times piece. Below are ways to Share this post if you'd like others to see it.
-- The Send to Kindle button works well only on Firefox currently.

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(Older posts have older Kindle model info. For latest models, see CURRENT KINDLES page. )
If interested, you can also follow my add'l blog-related news at Facebook and Twitter
Questions & feedback are welcome in the Comment areas (tho' spam is deleted). Thanks!