Credit: AppBrain

Sony Reader for Android supports PDF and EPUB files. It also supports titles downloaded from Sony’s eBook store. Users can adjust font sizes and synchronize their information to their Reader Daily Edition. This application does come with 3 classics and 3 new titles just to put the icing on the cake.

Sony Reader for Android is most useful to those who actually own a Sony Reader. It is a decent e-reader application, but Sony’s ebook offerings are somewhat limited. Kindle and Nook for Android are more useful products at this point.

Sony Reader Pocket edition is now selling for $149 (down $20). Reader Touch edition has gotten a $30 discount. Reader Daily Edition’s price has been dropped by $50. Unfortunately, that’s all the good news. Sony is going to find it very difficult to compete with other e-reader manufacturers without a clear e-book strategy. Low prices are not everything.

Things can change quickly in this market, but Sony has not shown a clear strategy on how it intends to recapture its leading position in the e-reader market. The company may not give up on any time soon, but things are not looking good.

Reader Cover with Light: a cool case for Sony Reader Daily Edition that comes integrated with a light, so you can protect your gadget and read more conveniently on the road.

Reader Daily Editionâ„¢ Battery: it never hurts to have a spare battery for your e-book reader. After all, you never know when your battery dies on you.

Rechargeable Pocket Charger for the Sony PRS-900: adds an additional 5 to 10 hours of operation to your Sony Reader. Charges your reader as well.

Essential Kit for the Sony PRS-900: includes a wall charger and a car charger to help you keep your reader charged at all times. It protects over charging as well.

Lexerd – Sony Reader PRS-900 Screen Protector: it not only keeps your screen safe against the elements and accidents, it also reduces glare as well.

Stay tuned for more accessories.

I am impressed with the length of this e-book reader. One of the issues that I have had with Kindle is that books seem longer than they are as the screen is often too small for me to view whole pages (without changing the font size). Sony’s new Reader is not that much larger, but it does seem to be long enough to handle whole pages much better. It obviously has touchscreen and wireless support. But it’s somewhat pricey at $399. Drop a $100 and PRS900 could be the real deal.

The next generation Sony Reader is finally here. We have known about this device for a while now, but it has taken Sony a few months to finally release it to the market. While most ebook reader makers have focused on 6 and 10 inch screen readers, Sony is trying to shoot for the middle with this 7 inch reader. Of course it does help that the device comes with 3G wireless connectivity and touch-screen navigation.

Sony Reader supports PDF and ePub, so it has that advantage over current Kindle units available on the market. You do get more content to consume on this device. Sony PRS-900BC does come with better support for magazine layouts and even lets you take notes on your device. You can’t complain about the battery either as this reader gives you 2.5 weeks of battery life per charge (as long as you turn your wireless off). The bad news is that the device is out of stock and will start shipping on Jan 29th. Who knows what new e-book reader will be released by then.

You got to feel for Sony. It used to be the top player in the e-book market, but since the emergence of Kindle, Sony has been struggling to keep up with Amazon. The latest move by Amazon has put Sony in a bind. Amazon is trying to go after college students with its bigger, better Kindle DX device and by providing support for PDF, Amazon has sent a stern warning to Sony and other players in the e-book market that they will need something special to challenge Kindle.

Sony has been making its own moves to take some of Kindle’s momentum away, but so far Kindle has been unstoppable. Sony readers are great gadgets, but they are simply inferior products to Amazon Kindle. One of the biggest selling points for Sony e-book readers were their support for PDF and ePub. Amazon has taken a big swing at that by finally adding native support for PDF documents. Things certainly don’t look good for Sony.

The time is now for Sony to make a move or fold its hand. Sony can no longer compete with Amazon with inferior devices. Sony’s strategy of charging $350 for its e-book reader simply doesn’t make sense at this point. In essence, Sony has conceded feature leadership to Amazon while it hasn’t make a big move to gain price leadership in this market. And if you think Amazon will keep charging $360 for Kindle 2.0, think again. What happens to Sony reader when Amazon drops its price by another $50?

All is not lost for Sony. The company has the know-how and a track record for innovation throughout the years it’s been in business. It also has been working on partnership deals with Verizon and Google. For Sony to truly challenge Amazon in the e-book market, it needs to come up with a device that addresses issues that Amazon Kindle doesn’t. For starters, Sony should support even more file formats on its next generation readers. It should also try to work on higher quality screens, and a customer-centric design to make reading more convenient for its customers.

Ultimately, Sony has to address the issues of content and connectivity if it wants to put up a challenge against Amazon in the e-book market. That’s not going to be easy, but not something Sony can’t overcome with partnerships and alliances. Things don’t certainly look rosy for Sony here. On the bright side, Sony does not have to start from scratch. The big question for Sony is whether it’s worth it to stick around and go head to head with Amazon in the e-book market.

Your take: what would you do if you were a Sony executive, trying to gain the upper-hand against Amazon in the e-book market?

You may have thought that Amazon was going to have it all easy when it introduced Kindle 2.0. Amazon made some good improvements over the first Kindle and solidified its position as the number one e-book player in the industry. But things are just starting to heat up. Sony is definitely not going to concede this market to Amazon. First, it joined hands with Google to provide Sony Reader owner with more content to consume. Now, it may even get a wireless provider for its reader.

Verizon has realized that the e-book market has the potential to be a goldmine, which is why it is considering entering the e-book market. According to Verizon, 5 companies have approached it about wireless connection on their e-book readers. Without reading too much into the statement made by the Verizon officials, it seems Sony is among those 5 companies:

We’d love to have Sony on there

That got to be great news for Sony fans. Sony has been trying so hard to come up with a solution for the puzzle that Kindle has become. But without a proper wireless service, Sony Reader is always going to fall short. But with Verizon and AT&T interested in entering the e-book market, Sony and even Plastic have a great opportunity to take one of Kindle’s strengths away. I still believe that Sony currently doesn’t have a good enough reader to beat Kindle even if it adds wireless connection to Sony PRS. But wireless companies’ involvement in this market is going to raise the bar for everyone. Maybe Amazon will finally realize the importance of adding that SDK and going social and viral with its own app store. All of a sudden, that move doesn’t look too far fetched, does it?

Your take: how will this revelation change the e-book market? Will it accelerate the demise of paper books? Please share your thoughts here.

Sony reader may be attractive to people who want to use the file formats not supported by Amazon Kindle, but you’ll still need an Internet connection and a place to buy content. The Kindle store has over 250,000 titles, and that is difficult for Sony to compete with. If Sony reader was priced in $200-250 range, I could see folks wanting to save money and going for it. But at $350, it is awfully hard to justify the price tag (especially when you can pay $10 and get the Kindle).

Stay tuned for PRS 700 review.

TechCrunch has a story on this whole issue. The good folks at TechCrunch talk about how folks are searching for Kindle and Sony Reader. I agree with their assessment that Kindle is still the top dog in this niche. The problem is, folks are hoping to buy something and get it now, not 3 months from now. If I were Sony, I would use all this to my advantage. Think about it. How likely is it for folks to buy both the Sony Reader and the Kindle?

To be fair to Sony, they have been offering discounts for Christmas and the holiday season. But the trouble is, the Sony reader is just not good enough yet for folks to want to buy it, nor are iRex, Plastic, and other similar devices. Amazon has changed the game dramatically with their ebook reader, and Sony and other rivals have a lot of catching up to do.

Having said all this, it’s still astounding that Amazon underestimated the demand for the Kindle, especially for the holiday season. It could have sold more than 1M Kindles instead of 800K+ had they not dropped the ball here.

What’s your take: do you believe the Kindle being out of stock has hurt Amazon in a significant way?

We are only days away from the release of Sony PRS-700BC, the alleged Kindle killer. Sony has been in the e-Book business for quite sometime. They have invested a lot of money in it, and this is a fight they are not going to give up anytime soon. But let’s see how they stack up.

Display: Sony PRS-700BC with a 6″ display. It’s has about the same real estate than Kindle on the surface, but it comes with touch screen technology.

Keyboard: unlike Kindle, PRS700BC comes with a digital finger touch keyboard. While its easy to use your finger to turn pages or bookmark them, I still would like to have the keyboards too.

E-Ink Technology: rumors are going around that Sony is using the new generation E-ink technology that will be used with Kindle 2.0.

LED Light: I have talked about having the backlit feature on Kindle, but Sony has implemented this feature with PRS700BC. The problem here is that I haven’t heard the same feature being offered with Kindle 2.0. Shame.

Thinkness: Kindle is about 0.6″ in thickness whereas Sony PRS700 stands at 0.4″. So the advantage here goes to Sony. But both devices weigh about the same.

Memory: Sony does support SD cards and Duo cards. Kindle only supports SD cards. Both devices come with internal memories.

Price: Sony PRS700BC is priced for $399. You can get it for $299 if you get a Sony card.

Even if you get Sony PRS700BC for $299, you still have to think about whether the free life-time wireless service provided by Amazon is worth the extra $60. I think it is worth way more than that, which is why PRS700BC will not have a home in my house. But Sony PRS700BC still is a cool gift. I am just not sure why someone would go for Sony instead of Kindle for the holiday season.