Sony Brings Digital Reading Experience to Life With the Launch of Its New Line of Readers

Continuing to provide book lovers with the most natural, immersive digital reading experience, Sony today announced the launch of its beautifully-designed new line of Reader digital books, including the new Reader Pocket Edition™, Reader Touch Edition™ and, in the U.S., the wireless Reader Daily Edition™. The new line of Readers features a host of new design and technology enhancements that make them the perfect device for any reader's lifestyle.

"Today, we're excited to announce not just the availability of the Reader Touch Edition and Pocket Edition in the countries we already serve but also plans to expand the Reader line to previously untapped markets," said Steve Haber, president of Sony's Digital Reading Business Division. "We take a thoughtful approach to country expansion, including Italy, Spain, Australia, Japan and China, working with local bookstores to ensure content is compatible, relevant and in the appropriate language for each market."

The new Reader models bring a fresh level of flare to e-reading with colorful, elegant aluminum designs and all new, highly responsive touch screens. In addition to the new devices in the U.S., Sony announced development of a set of applications for iPhone and the Android Marketplace to extend the Reader experience across multiple portable devices.

"The success of our previous line of Readers illustrates book lovers' demand for feature choices and full touch screens on their digital reading devices," said Phil Lubell, vice president of Digital reading at Sony Electronics. "Today, we're answering their call by providing an entire line of stylish, full touch screen devices with a variety of features and price points."

What's New

The new generation of Readers builds on the popularity of last year's line. For 2010 Sony has restyled all three of the devices, reduced their size and weight, and made new, innovative touch screens available across the entire line.

  --  Touch Screen for Everyone
      --  Based on the popularity of the full touch screen on its previous
          Reader Touch Edition and Daily Edition models, Sony equipped the
          entire line of new Readers with improved, optical touch screen
          technology designed specifically for digital reading*.  The new,
          first-to-market technology enhances ease of use and increases
          reading clarity, creating an immersive reading experience for
          consumers. Book lovers can now escape into their favorite books
          with the lightest swipe of a finger or stylus pen.
  --  Improved E Ink Displays
      --  All three devices utilize E Ink® Pearl electronic paper displays,
          which delivers a paper-like display that is readable in direct
          sunlight. The screens offer a high contrast ratio with 16 levels
          of grayscale, ensuring that text and images are crisp and easy to
          read.
  --  A Reader Pocket Edition that Will Wow You
      --  The new Reader Pocket Edition sports a five-inch, full touch
          screen and a smart, lightweight design that's easy to slip into a
          purse or jacket pocket for convenient, on-the-go reading. It is
          available in chic colors, including silver and pink. It has 2 GB
          of onboard memory, which lets you carry up to 1,200 of your
          favorite books, and retails for about $179.
  --  A New Reader Touch Edition: More of Everything Readers Love
      --  The new Reader Touch Edition features a six-inch full touch screen
          and an intuitive design with 2 GB of onboard memory. In addition,
          it offers dual expansion slots for up to 32GB of additional memory
          and the ability to play MP3 and AAC audio files. It's available in
          black or red for about $229.
  --  A Reader Daily Edition that Adds Wi-Fi and New Web Features
      --  The Reader Daily Edition provides a wireless connection to Sony's
          Reader Store from most of the U.S. via AT&T's 3G network. Now, it
          will also provide Wi-Fi and basic Web browsing capability on its
          large, seven-inch full touch screen.
      --  "The eReading space is doing very well and the Daily Edition has
          been a great performing product in this popular connected devices
          category," said Glenn Lurie, president of AT&T emerging devices.
          "We're looking forward to connecting Sony's next generation
          wirelessly connected eReader on the nation's fastest mobile
          broadband network."
      --  A host of pre-loaded practical and reading-based URLs will provide
          direct access to optimized, text-based sites to add a new
          dimension to the reading experience. The Reader Daily Edition also
          includes 2 GB of memory and expansion slots for additional memory
          (up to 32 GB). It comes in silver and will sell for about $299.
  --  Additional New Features Across the Entire Line
      --  New features allow for easier reading of PDF or personal
          documents. Intuitive content zoom, adjustable contrast and
          brightness control, as well as automatic multiple page creation
          will make documents designed for a standard sheet of paper easier
          to read on a smaller screen. Also, personalized standby screen
          options will allow users to use their favorite photos as a screen
          saver and the collections functionality will allow them to group
          their favorite reads.
      --  In addition, the new Reader line is more global than ever,
          offering users the ability to look up words and phrases with the
          built in New Oxford American Dictionary, Second Edition and Oxford
          Dictionary of English eDictionaries, as well as 10 translation
          dictionaries in languages such as French, German, Spanish, Italian
          and Dutch. Wordsmiths across the globe can now create "word logs"
          to track the words they've looked up per dictionary, book or
          periodical in chronological order, while quickly switching between
          dictionaries.
  --  More Content on More Devices
      --  In addition to announcing a new generation of Readers, Sony has
          also made several changes and improvements to Reader Store. More
          than 1.2 million titles are available in the U.S. via the store.
          Sony remains committed to providing an extensive offering of
          newspaper and magazine content for single issue purchase or
          subscription within the newsstand area of the store.  Soon to be
          available titles include The Harvard Business Review, The Wilson
          Quarterly and Dell Magazines' highly regarded fiction magazines:
          Alfred Hitchcock's Mystery Magazine, Ellery Queen's Mystery
          Magazine, Asimov's Science Fiction, and Analog Science Fiction and
          Fact. The store's Library Finder application continues to provide
          easy access to local public libraries to borrow eBooks for free.
          To make choosing a book easier, the New York Times Bestsellers
          list will be featured alongside the Reader Store's bestsellers. By
          next month, integration with Goodreads will also permit the
          inclusion of reader reviews from that site onto the Reader Store.
      --  With Reader™ Desktop Edition (formerly Reader Library) for
          Apple's Mac OS X and Microsoft® Windows® and Reader™ Mobile
          Edition for Apple iPhone and Google Android-based smartphones,
          users will be able to synchronize their reading among multiple
          devices. These free applications, available later this year, will
          offer an intuitive digital reading experience with an elegant
          interface and access to Sony's Reader Store for browsing and
          purchasing content. Reader Desktop Edition also includes the
          ability to easily manage content for the non-wireless Reader
          models.

The new Reader Pocket Edition and the new Reader Touch Edition are available immediately, and the new Reader Daily Edition is expected to be available this in time for the holidays. The Reader Pocket Edition and Touch Edition, as well as available accessories such as AC adaptors, cases and covers with reading lights, are available now at SonyStyle.com and SonyStyle stores.

*Optical touch screen technology customized for Sony and licensed from Neonode Inc.

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SOURCE: Sony Electronics

CONTACT: Kyle Austin, +1-781-487-4603, KAustin@racepointgroup.com, for
Sony Electronics

Web Site: http://www.sony.com/