eBooks – German blog site, Lesen.net was told by Sony that the company is giving up the eBook market and that the current PRS-T4 will be the last product in its Sony Reader line. This follows on from decision to drop out of the US market in April 2014 and the closure of stores in the UK, Germany, Austria and Australia in May. Good eReader blog quoted sources at Sony Europe as confirming that the product line had been cancelled.
Display Central Comment
After the earlier announcements, this could not be said to be a surprise. Sony was a pioneer in this market and one of the first to use E Ink electrophoretic displays in a volume product. It showed its eBooks in 2006. Sony has often said that having access to devices and content is a real advantage. Sony didn’t become the success that the Kindle did, although at the time it had a lead in the market and Amazon was not in the hardware business in any meaningful way. I’ve been saying for a long time that the Sony argument is a good one, but it remains to be proved. The reality is often that device makers benefit from free pirated content, while content companies benefit from profit-less hardware. This is a theme that I will come back to in a future Display Daily. Bob Raikes
