Sony Reader Pocket and Touch editions lower cost of entry, online e-book store follows suitby Ross Miller posted Aug 4th 2009 at 6:11PM
As it turns out, those Sony Reader leaksfrom earlierthis week were spot on. The company just went official with the PRS-300and 600, which will more affectionately be known as the Pocket andTouch editions, respectively. The latter (pictured left, not to scale)is the 6-inch resistive touchscreen model replacing the PRS-700, withMemory Stick / Duo and SD card slots. The backlighting layer from itspredecessor has been dropped to improve touch responsiveness and toalleviate concerns of glare. It also comes packing a stylus and adigitized copy of the Oxford American English Dictionary and will beavailable in red, black, and silver. The Pocket Edition, on the otherhand, is your standard fare with no touchscreen or expandable diskport, and palettes including blue, silver, and rose. Both models haveUSB 2.0, 512MB internal memory, and no WiFi whatsoever -- Sony assuresus a WiFi version is coming and there'll be news on those coming soon,but this isn't it. There's also Mac compatibility, a first for theseries, that's trickling down to older models via a firmware update.Touch and Pocket will be available by the end of August and will retailfor $299 and $199, a substantially more competitive price point thanits previous generation. Speaking of which, as of tomorrow, the Sony'se-book store is dropping the prices of its bestsellers from $11.99 to$9.99. A win all around, but will it be enough to make a dent in Kindle's stronghold? Things are certainly getting more interesting. Gallery: Sony Reader Pocket and Touch editions lower cost of entry, online e-book store follows suit
