New York — Sony unveiled a new, updated version of its e-book reader tonight, the PRS-700, which includes new features like a touchscreen, note taking and highlighting with a stylus, and a front-lit screen.
Several major textbook publishers were in attendance at the release, further emphasizing the fact that Sony envisions college students as their target market.
But the PRS-700 is $100 more expensive that the previous reader at $399, which is likely to turn many students away. Perhaps if Sony worked out a cheaper package deal with textbook publishers, the cost would be more manageable.
The dimensions and physical design are very similar to the previous reader, but the touchscreen has eliminated the need for dials to scroll through the pages. You now just slide your finger in any direction and the page will flip just as you would with a paper book. The new reader will start shipping next month.
It would have been bigger news had Sony unveiled a wireless service like Amazon's Kindle, although they did say that a future release will have wireless, and it will be an open platform, with the option of buying books from any location.
It was clear earlier this week that Sony had educational institutions on its mind, when it kicked-off its “Read-In” promotion in New York.
Speed-reader Dave Farrow moved into the display window of Datavision on 39th Street in New York for 30 days with one of Sony's readers. The more pages he reads, the more e-books Sony will donate to various schools (a library of 100 classic titles for each school per page). They announced that the first 100 schools to register their e-book libraries with Sony will get 5 new Sony readers.
Well that’s a start, but who is going to cough up the 400 bucks for everyone else?
