Sony
The $399 device, called the Daily Edition, will be available in December, Steve Haber, president of Sonys reader unit, said at an event in New York yesterday. The model will use the third-generation network of AT&T Inc., the second-largest U.S. wireless carrier.
Sony, seeking to rebound from two straight quarterly losses, aims to tap growing demand for digital books and electronic publications. The new reader will be able to hold more than 1,000 e-books, compared with as many as 3,500 for the Kindle.
The basic Kindle costs $299, with a larger-screen version selling for $489. Earlier this month, Sony unveiled other electronic reader models starting at $199. Those products lacked a wireless connection.
Daily Edition users will have access to digital books from 9,000 libraries, including 40,000 titles from the New York Public Library, Sony said. Customers can check out books online from their local librarys digital collection, with the title disappearing from the device at the end of the lending period.
Google Deal
In March, Sony gained access to more than 500,000 e-book titles for its readers through an agreement with Google Inc. The deal expanded Tokyo-based Sonys e-book store to about 1 million titles at the end of last month, compared with the more than 320,000 Amazon.com offers.
Sales of electronic books more than doubled to $25.8 million in the first three months of 2009 from a year earlier, according to the Association of American Publishers in New York. Digital books still make up less than 2 percent of total U.S. book sales, which declined 7 percent in the first quarter, the association said.
Glenn Lurie, head of emerging devices at AT&T, said in April that the Kindle has done a “phenomenal job” and that the carrier wants to be part of that market. The Dallas-based company said last month it will sell an electronic reader with Plastic Logic Ltd. That product is slated to come out in 2010.
The Kindle uses the network of Sprint Nextel Corp., the countrys third-biggest carrier.
The wireless industry needs new revenue sources as the U.S. mobile-phone market nears saturation. Almost nine out of 10 U.S. residents had a wireless device at the end of last year, according to the CTIA industry association.
Verizon Wireless, which surpassed AT&T as the largest U.S. mobile carrier last year, is making a similar bet. The company announced a partnership with Qualcomm Inc. in July that would help electronics makers add wireless capabilities to products.