Thursday, August 6, 2009
Sony will begin selling this month the cheapest digital book reader for the United States, heating up the competition with Amazon.com Inc in the small but fast-growing market for electronic readers.
Sony plans to start selling its 5-inch-screen Reader Pocket Edition at $199 -- which it called a breakthrough price and a larger touchscreen reader for $299, through nationwide retail outlets such as Wal-Mart and Best Buy.
To drive demand, the company plans to reduce the price it now charges for downloads of best-sellers and new releases to $9.99 from $11.99, bringing prices largely in line with Amazon's.
The news is the latest salvo in a battle between digital readers where Sony -- which was first to market -- Amazon and other companies are vying to establish themselves in a market that they expect to become a profit driver.
In July, online retailer Amazon cut the price of its standard Kindle electronic reader by 17 percent to $299. A larger version of the Kindle sells at $489.
Electronic readers allow consumers to read books, magazines or newspapers on a tablet-like device that downloads content digitally.
By: DocMemory
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