The Sony 13.3 Inch e-Reader (DPT-S1) has been well received by the reading community because of its large and lightweight screen technology. Few e-readers ever produced have garnered such buzz and people are visibly excited about a wide-spread commercial release in May of 2014 in North America. Starting December 8th it will be available in Japan for around $1200 US or 98,000 yen. The sad part is that it will not be available in a retail environment. Instead, it will only be available for business customers via Sony’s own website and obviously through the grey market, such as Rakuten.
Many people were hoping that they could pick one of these readers at the big electronic stores like Edion or Bicamera. Unfortunately Sony is making the call to sell it only to business customers, which for the most part are schools. It is not really a product designed for the casual reading audience because it can only read PDF files. So for example, the Sony Reader Store would not be bundled on it, obviously leading to confusion if a newbie reader got their hands on one.
Michael Kozlowski is the editor-in-chief at Good e-Reader and has written about audiobooks and e-readers for the past fifteen years. Newspapers and websites such as the CBC, CNET, Engadget, Huffington Post and the New York Times have picked up his articles. He Lives in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada.