2005: Year of the eBook Reader?
Sony and Matsushita (owner of Panasonic) are poised to start competing with dedicated ebook reading devices and some new technology in 2005. Sony started off badly in Japan last year with a terribly restrictive DRM scheme that even the Japanese balked at.The Times of London has an article about this which is kind of interesting.
These devices are likely to be pricey at around $400, but I expect the price to drop as Korean, Chinese, Indian and Indonesian knockoffs become available. European electronics giant Phillips is also experimenting with these and I think Samsung is too. I think the big jockeying right now is to get the brand established for market share. Like Sony did with the walkman and Apple did with the iPod.
With China switching all 160 million school kids to e-textbooks on hardware readers I suspect this concept is here to stay.
There are readers already available using older display technologies:
Review Cybook Reader
eBookwise 1150
PDA: if you carry a PDA you can already read ebooks there are several free software programs available for the PDA.
Lastly, you can also read ebooks on your desktop or laptop computer. Not quite as portable or comfortable, but it will do in a pinch.
Source: MobileRead
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