Meanwhile, today I get an email from Sony saying that their Reader store closed on March 20, and that it has ceded its customers to Kobo, which spawned from Canada's Chapters Indigo. [0]
While this tech may be notable, Sony continues to have a fatally misaligned device/content strategy.
Sure - and I think Sony e-readers were even among the first to allow side-loading of non-DRM ebooks.
The problem is the economics. There just haven't been financially successful examples of standalone readers, and Sony has been no exception.
Amazon can offer cheap Kindles because they can sell ebooks onto the devices directly and make money from content. Apple can charge more for their books because people are bought-in to their iPad investment, and because competitors have to pay Apple 30% to sell directly on to an iOS device.
Sony, meanwhile, continues to fail to bring an integrated value proposition to the market. Everything with them involves friction, compared to the competition. Last time I was at CES, I couldn't even find a Sony reader in their booth.
While this tech may be notable, Sony continues to have a fatally misaligned device/content strategy.
[0] http://www.kobobooks.com/SonyMigrate