Here we go! Sony has revealed that it has sold 300,000 of its digital e-book Reader globally since the device was launched in October 2006 and that it is working on a wireless version of the product to rival Amazon.com’s Kindle. Sony’s unit retails for $300, which, in my opinion, is still too high, but the move toward wireless should also begin the price wars.
Though Amazon won’t release sales figures for the Kindle, gadget industry experts widely report that sales of Kindle and Sony Reader Book are running neck and neck. Logically, that should mean that once Sony goes wireless, they’ll begin to move toward dominance of the market. Amazon’s response will more than likely be Kindle2, but I also believe they’ll drop their price.
So far three million books have been downloaded from Sony’s online library, which is home to 57,000 titles. The electronics giant said it planned to grow its online library to 100,000 titles by the end of 2008.
The future seems obvious: Once the Beta versus VHS type wars have been fought, what should emerge is a single portal type for all available e-books. Prices per book might rise a bit at the beginning, but the price of the e-reader(s) will plummet. The winner in the book world, will be (as it should be) whoever sells the most e-books, rather than whoever sells the most e-readers.
