In a move designed to increase its reach and appeal in the burgeoning e-book arena, consumer electronics giant Sony Corp. has announced that it is opening the doors of its ebookstore so that more publishers can offer their titles via Sony’s Reader device.
Sony opens its Reader ebook device to more publishers. Image: edans/Flickr.
To implement the market expansion Sony has released a software update for the Reader, which, once installed, will effectively unlock the portable device from Sony’s own store and enable its user base to purchase their electronic books (ebooks) from outside electronic retailers.
“This upgrade opens the door to a whole host of paid and free content from third-party ebook stores, Web sites and even public libraries,” trumpeted Steve Haber, senior vice president of consumer product marketing for Sony Electronics in an official release.
Sony’s software upgrade will render the Reader compatible with the Epub format, which is widely used by prominent book publishers such as Simon & Schuster, Penguin Group, Harper Media, Hachette Book Group, and Harlequin Enterprises.
Central e-book publishing trade group the International Digital Publishing Forum also backs Epub, which is notable for being the first outside format that allows the supplier to sidestep potential piracy by copy-protecting their products.
Current Reader-compatible formats for e-book downloads include PDF (Portable Document Format) and RTF (Rich Text Format), along with text file formats such as TXT and DOC.
Despite Sony’s forward-thinking strategy, which will almost certainly succeed in enamouring prospective ebook consumers by improving the variety of compatible titles on offer to the Reader, it remains to be seen whether the adoption of Epub helps Sony reduce the content gap that presently exists between its Reader and Amazon’s Kindle.
Sony’s ebookstore currently stocks around 45,000 downloadable titles (which will be improved via Epub) but, by comparison, Internet retail giant Amazon has in excess of 140,000 titles available for its Kindle reader, according to the Associated Press. In terms of hardware pricing, Sony’s Reader is the slightly more attractive proposition at $300 USD, while Amazon’s Kindle costs $359 USD.
According to wholesale performance figures released by the International Digital Publishing Forum, ebook sales spread across 12 of the major publishing houses in the United States amounted to around $31.8 million USD in 2007. Neither Sony nor Amazon have yet released specific sales figures attributed to their respective e-book reading devices.
In a further attempt to sprinkle more demographic fairy dust on its electronic book platform, Sony has also this week announced that the Reader will be officially launched in the United Kingdom on September 03.
Leading book chain Waterstone’s will be the Reader’s official retail partner. Reader’s pre-ordered online through the official Sony store will be gifted with 100 classic eBook titles, absolutely free.
Amazon is yet to extend the reach of Kindle beyond the United States, where it launched back in November of 2007.
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