[新鲜书市]索尼将推出399美元电子书阅读器

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.

本电子集团索尼(Sony)宣布，将推出一款价格399美元的无线触摸屏电子书阅读器，以求夺回它在新兴的电子书市场控制权争夺战中被亚马逊()抢走的份额。

这款索尼新产品名为Reader Daily Edition，将在12月投放美国市场，售价将比亚马逊的基本无线设备Kindle高出100美元，但其触摸屏有7英寸，Kindle 的屏幕只有6英寸。

索尼还希望，新阅读器的定价、与谷歌(Google)和美国各大图书馆的协议，以及对Epub电子图书标准的支持，将使它突显自身产品的亮点：价格适中、100万部图书的选择空间，以及开放存取模式（而非Kindle采用的专有系统），从而夺回主动权。

虽然索尼公司利用先进的电子墨水技术率先拓展了电子书阅读器市场，但它在将该产品转化为大众市场设备的竞争中落后于亚马逊。

Reader阅读器于2005年在日本推出，在2006年便首次进入美国市场，但两年前推出首个版本的Kindle却取得了令人意外的成功。

索尼表示，预计公司将在12月份之前与报刊出版商达成合作协议，并将通过3G手机连接提供其它数字内容。