The main Sony store that lists all of its current generation line of e-readers now lists every model as out of stock, says Mike Cane. This includes the Pocket edition, Sony Touch, Sony Daily, and others. Sony recently submitted a new e-reader to the FCC dubbed the PRS-T1 which should be out in the next few weeks.
Sony has quit manufacturing new PRS e-readers, and although the USA based website of Sony shows them all as unavailable, the Canadian based site does have some in stock.
Sony is making way for a new line of WIFI enabled devices to hit the market soon and has not publicly commented on the exact specifics of any of them. A few weeks ago, a Sony executive stated that the company was indeed developing a new breed of e-reader, but then an official word was released saying this was fiction.
Sony plans on introducing the two models over the next few months, which are the spiritual successors of the PRS-350 and PRS-650. Sources have told Good e-Reader that the models will tap into Sony’s own book store. This is not only important to North American based customers who do business directly via WIFI, but also to the company’s ambitions to dominate the Japanese market. We also heard the company was going to use the Android Platform in order to deliver content and build synergy with its own official Android App.
We reported in various stories that the reason why the PRS-650 became so hard to find this year was because Sony has expanded its operations to Japan and diverted all of their normal shipments there. The company made various agreements with local newspaper, magazine, and book companies to deliver content exclusively in Japanese. Sony also has stated publicly many times that it is seeking to be the homegrown hero in the land of the rising sun.
Michael Kozlowski is the Editor in Chief of Good e-Reader. He has been writing about audiobooks and e-readers for the past ten years. His articles have been picked up by major and local news sources and websites such as the CBC, CNET, Engadget, Huffington Post and the New York Times.
