Sony Throws In the eReader Towel (and cuts off 3G)

sony-reader

Amidst mounting losses across the board, Sony’s decided to jettison a few under performing businesses. While their exit from computers grabbed most of the headlines, they’ve also thrown in the towel on eReaders. Early on Sony actually produced the best eReader hardware. However, their success was held back due to pricing, marketing, and distribution. Not to mention no one can match the Amazon ecosystem. In a fairly altruistic move, we suppose, Sony Reader hardware will be relinked to Kobo’s digital storefront – so the eBooks will continue flowing. Unless you happened to step up to a 3G Reader, in which case, your cellular data will be unceremoniously cut off next month. At least the USB lights will remain on?

4 thoughts on “Sony Throws In the eReader Towel (and cuts off 3G)”

  1. That’s the big risk in choosing a digital ecosystem: If it fails, you don’t know if the content you purchased, will be usable on other devices. Fortuanately, in this case, you can still use a Kobo device. The ideal situation is Ultraviolet, or something similiar.

  2. “Early on Sony actually produced the best eReader hardware.”

    Well… I guess that’s true. Sony certainly produced the ONLY eReader hardware at one point, but they never advertised it and they didn’t have a good eBook store. And over time they messed up quite a bit. That touch device they made where you could hardly read the screen thru the extra film layer? Yeah, that was clearly the way to go. And of course Amazon undercut them on price. They kept plugging away but it’s been kinda pointless for quite some time now.

    It seems like they’re doing everything reasonably here, but it will be interesting to watch and see if any big glitches occur. Books that can’t be read or disappear after the transition to Kobo, devices that stop working, whatever. Always the problem with that good ol’ DRM lock in.

  3. Actually the ideal solution is no drm… Short of that, I took all the content I purchased (legally) from Sony and removed the drm so that I could convert it to my kindle.

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