End of Sony consumer readers confirmed

[RZetlin]

I am curious who will handle the existing Sony readers in Japan? Kobo?

[Nate the great]

Originally Posted by RZetlin

I am curious who will handle the existing Sony readers in Japan? Kobo?

Sony hasn't shuttered their Reader Store in Japan. It's their last remaining store.

[library addict]

Sad

I guess I have have to take extra special care with my 650. I still use it though the Nexus has become my primary reader due to the light.

[sirmaru]

My first eReader was the Sony PRS-505. I donated it to the Public Library when I started with Kindles.

[spindlegirl]

I have a Kindle 4 (non touch, non paperwhite) and a Sony T2 which I still love. But I'm not really in the market for a new reader. I read some books also on my tablet (Library Overdrive) and/or my phone.

But I still use my 2 e-ink readers interchangeably. I kind of figured, after the sony "Bookstore" shifted to Kobo, that Sony was exiting the e-reader biz.

[sabredog]

I was going to sell my T1 and just hold on the the 650 and T3, but I might change that course of action now.

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by fjtorres

They had all the pieces (but one) to be boss, including a big head start on Amazon, and threw it all away. Instead of improving their ebookstore, they killed their walled garden and had to start over from scratch, wasting over a year at a time Kindle was figuring out what worked and what didn't and surging ahead.

They never caught up after that.

Sony didn't have to start over from scratch. They just had to do things different to merge ePub in with LRX in the eBookstore. Sony could have been King and Amazon second fiddle. Sony's eBookstore wasn't that bad overall. But it could have been better. There's a lot Sony could have done and they would have still been good to go. As it is they are not good to go and they've gone.

[DBDigital]

Doesn't surprise me either with their previous announcements. A shame though from what I hear their readers are/were great. I didn't like them at first since they used their own format, after that was opened up, I already had a Nook but I still heard that Sony was the best at side-loading/categorizing compared to other readers. The main author of Calibre would tell people to go and get a Sony if they wanted good side-loading with organization/categorization. I don't know if he still has the same opinion now or not.

I still prefer e-ink over LCD for long reading. But I think more of the market is going with multi-use tablets. And in that instance it is easier to organize books since you can do so via folders or other methods. Not to mention picking a reader app that fits your reading style (although I can't fault the Nook reader software does everything I want, except for the classic, but then again it did after a slight bit of hacking.

[Superphil]

I always thought that they were over priced, like most Sony products. Love my original Kobo, without frontal lighting!

[MickeyC]

My first eInk reader was the 505. Was going to get a 500 in late 07 when the 505 came out. And, had I not dropped it waking out of the gym one day, I would still be using it. I replaced it with a T1 and will use that till it fades away. Will probably replace it with a Kobo. Sigh.

[CLIEGURU]

So much can and should be said about Sony's effort. They were the first to wholesale bring e-ink into the mainstream and they helped to change the way people read. It truely is a sad day but not unexpected. Rather than detail Sony's actions with the reader let's look at Mobileread's contribution:

* Mobile read hosted the very first FAQ with Sony even before the product launched- Thanks to Alex.

* NatCh posted the very first detailed hands on review of the Reader on this site.

* Bob Russell reported tirelessly on the product on this site.

* Kovid Goyal created the first third party eBook Library "Calibre" for the Sony Reader and posted on MobileRead.

* Before Kindle some MobileRead people were at Book shows promoting the product. I meet NatCh in Austin doing that.

* Due to Calibre and MobileRead members, Mobileread hosted one of the earliest free public domain archives in LRF for the Sony Reader.

* When Amazon first launched the Kindle, it was MobileRead that took to Sony's defense and promoted the PRS 505 over the first generation Kindle.

* There were so many posts in forums for the Sony Reader here at MobileRead that it took Amazon almost 4 years to have as many posts about the Kindle.

I write these things because this is a good time to point out how influential MobileRead has been and really to show how much of the Reader's initial success resides with all of us here. I haven't written much here but was a daily reader of all the great stuff when both the Reader and Kindle launched. To all of you, if you are still here- THANKS!

[spindlegirl]

Sony is top notch for side loading. And even though I like my tablet and phone, my eyes really get less strain on my eink readers.

[Shopaholic]

Originally Posted by JSWolf

For what they did do, Sony did have good programmers. The firmware worked well. To be able to shoehorn ePub into the 500 was probably not an easy task.

But I kind of figured Sony would exit the eBook market when they decided not to sell the T1 in the US. What Sony needed was proper leadership which they didn't have. If they had, they could have been bigger then Kobo.

You're incorrect. The T1 and T2 were both available in the US. It was the most recent reader, the T3, that was not.

And it saddens me that they're leaving the market. Inevitable I suppose based on a variety of factors, but it still makes me sad. Pottermore recently quietly dropped their partnership with Sony so I was expecting some sort of reader demise to follow. For anyone who cares, WB is now the Pottermore partner.

[cfrizz]

Sony's main problem across the board is that the leadership of Sony refuses to realize that they are NOT Apple anymore. Their heyday has come and gone but they still think that they are top dog and can keep their prices high all due to their name.

Yes they make top notch products, but not so good that others won't eventually surpass them. and to refuse to make a lighted reader when they were selling like hot cakes with every other vendor was just stupid. So, too high prices for lack of innovation = products that don't sell.

[CWatkinsNash]

Originally Posted by spindlegirl

Sony is top notch for side loading.

So true.

Though I love my Nook STG that a got for Christmas last year, I recently pulled out my T1, rooted it, installed ereaderhome and put some books on it. (I should note that I use Sony defaults for everything except the home screens.) The difference is astounding. Automatic collections via calibre is the top one.

With my Nook I don't keep more than a handful of books on it because I don't have the patience to keep up with shelf maintenance, even using a metadata plugboard to append a prefix telling me which genre shelf a book goes on. I don't always know what I'm going to want to read a few days from now, so that leads to a lot of sideloading sessions.

I don't like managing things ON an ereader - I've already done all the work in calibre. With the T1, I just stick books on it, and they go where they are supposed to and where I can actually find them.

Like I said, I do love my Nook - that light makes reading much easier in many situations and I wouldn't give it up. But I'll be reading on the T1, too, because when I'm on a roll and reading book after book after book, the T1 features make that easier without having to stop and sideload every few days.