[新鮮書市]索尼將推出399美元電子書閱讀器

Sony opens new chapter in fight for dominance of electronic books

Sony has unveiled its bid to reclaim ground lost to in the battle for control of the emerging electronic book market with a wireless, touch-screen reader priced at $399.

The Japanese electronics group's new Reader Daily Edition, which will hit the US market in December, costs $100 more than Amazon's basic wireless Kindle device, but offers a seven-inch touch screen, larger than the Kindle's six inches.

Sony also hopes that its pricing, deals with Google and US libraries, and its support for the Epub electronic book standard, will allow it to regain the initiative by emphasising affordability, a choice of 1m titles and an open access model rather than the Kindle's proprietary system.

While Sony helped pioneer the market for e-book readers using sophisticated electronic ink technology, it had fallen behind Amazon in the race to transform electronic readers into mass market devices.

The Reader, launched in Japan in 2005, was first to market in the US in 2006, but the Kindle has been a surprise success since its first version was launched two years ago.

Sony said it too expected to have deals with newspaper and magazine publishers by December, and will offer other digital content over a 3G mobile phone connection.

本電子集團索尼(Sony)宣佈，將推出一款價格399美元的無線觸摸屏電子書閱讀器，以求奪回它在新興的電子書市場控制權爭奪戰中被亞馬遜()搶走的份額。

這款索尼新產品名爲Reader Daily Edition，將在12月投放美國市場，售價將比亞馬遜的基本無線設備Kindle高出100美元，但其觸摸屏有7英寸，Kindle 的屏幕只有6英寸。

索尼還希望，新閱讀器的定價、與谷歌(Google)和美國各大圖書館的協議，以及對Epub電子圖書標準的支持，將使它突顯自身產品的亮點：價格適中、100萬部圖書的選擇空間，以及開放存取模式（而非Kindle採用的專有系統），從而奪回主動權。

雖然索尼公司利用先進的電子墨水技術率先拓展了電子書閱讀器市場，但它在將該產品轉化爲大衆市場設備的競爭中落後於亞馬遜。

Reader閱讀器於2005年在日本推出，在2006年便首次進入美國市場，但兩年前推出首個版本的Kindle卻取得了令人意外的成功。

索尼表示，預計公司將在12月份之前與報刊出版商達成合作協議，並將通過3G手機連接提供其它數字內容。