New Sony Readers to come with slashed book prices?
updated 06:00 pm EDT, Tue August 4, 2009
Sony Reader Book Cost Leak
A leak Tuesday evening suggests Sony's new Reader devices should come in step with a price drop on the e-books themselves. Pointing only to an individual "briefed on the matter," the Wall Street Journal both confirms the pair of devices leaked earlier and says that prices on bestseller books will drop from $12 to $10, falling in line with both Amazon's Kindle Store and the Barnes & Noble store. Sony has already helped drive lower-cost books by adding Google's catalog of free, public domain titles.
Clarifying the two hardware offerings, the newspaper says the 5-inch, conventional PRS-300 will be nicknamed the Pocket Edition, while the 6-inch touchscreen should be labeled the Touch Edition. Neither will have wireless to hit their respective $199 and $299 price targets and thus undercut the regular Kindle's own recent drop to $299.
If accurate, both would ship in late August and should for the first time reach large retailers like Best Buy and Walmart, not just Sony's own channels.
