The Sony Digital Paper has been a huge success story and this product has proved there is a market for large screen e-readers in our professional lives. Sadly, all good things must come to an end and it looks like Sony will be shuttering their existing e-commerce website on August 28th at 1PM.
Sony initially begun to sell the Digital Paper through its 3rd party vendors because it did not have the infrastructure to sell this device directly. The vendor program was a little bit too successful, and companies like Worldox were chronically sold out. Sony had to do something about it, and they decided to open up a phone line, where customers could call in and place an order over the phone. Many customers told us that this process was much akin to an interrogation where they asked your level of technological expertise and sometimes refused to sell it. This occured primarily because Sony did not have a customer service system for the DPT-S1 and they had to make sure whoever was going to buy one knew what they were doing.
In August of last year, Sony begun to sell the Digital Paper online for the first time, allowing anyone in the US to order one. A month later they opened up a customer service system to assist in troubleshooting common problems.
The Future of the Digital Paper is currently unknown. The message on the Sony site says that they are working with their partners to unveil a new service, but there is an air of finality that once August 28th passes, you won’t be able to order a Digital Paper online.
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.