Today I’ve got some unfortunate news to report. Some new information has leaked online about Sony’s new upcoming PRS-T3 ebook reader and it doesn’t look good.
In fact I’m so disappointed that I almost decided not to write an article about this at all because quite frankly there’s so little new information revealed that it hardly warrants any attention at all, but it’s the one thing that is missing that caught my eye.
It’s all but official. The new Sony Reader PRS-T3 does not have a frontlight. It looks like Sony is choosing to be the only major ebook reader manufacture not to give its user base the option of a frontlit ereader.
How can I be so certain the PRS-T3 doesn’t have a frontlight, you ask? Well, that’s easy. There’s no reason at all to sell a lighted cover for the PRS-T3 unless it doesn’t have a built-in light of its own. Yep. Not only did the PRS-T3 show up early on retailers’ websites, so did the lighted cover.
The only possible way that Sony releases a PRS-T3 with a frontlight is if there just happens to be some kind of sub-model that has yet to be leaked. And that’s not very likely.
If a frontlight doesn’t matter to you, then the rest of the leaked specs may be of interest. It turns out it’s not all bad news. The PRS-T3 does at least come with a 1024 x 758 HD E Ink screen. Of course that’s nothing new. The Kindle Paperwhite and Kobo Glo used that screen last year, and the iRiver Story HD had it over 2 years ago.
Other specs include Wi-Fi and infrared touch. The device has an auto wake/sleep cover and a lithium-ion battery. Once again there are going to be three color choices available, black (PRST3BC), red (PRST3RC), and white (PRST3WC). Nothing new or surprising to note. Hopefully the software has some yet-to-be-revealed goodies, or the PRS-T3 could be a huge disappointment.
I wonder if Sony decided to price it as the lowest of the bunch? Could it really go for no more than US$49.99? Really, that’d be about all it’s worth without a built-in light and with still using IR for touch.
The info out of europe suggests it’ll list closer to $149 than $49.
I sure hope they’re throwing in the cover at that price…
In the FCC documents there’s an PRS-T3S mentioned. So at least there’s still a little chance of a frontlight version. But tbh, I doubt it too.
It’s the KODAC story all over again and when they realize that the ship is sinking it will be too late. Sony is lucky that readers are but a small part of their business or it would really be the Kodac story again…
I wish I could punish them by not getting a Sony reader but that already happened last year when I abandoned them to get a Kobo Glo and subsequently an Aura HD.
They might be profitable.
I do not know where to look up their eReader profits. But if they manufacture a cheap eReader for 5 USD and sell it to the “loopy ones” using Sony name for 150 USD, that is still profitable.
It just doesn’t look like Sony is serious about competing in eBook hardware. I`m not sure how well that bodes for digital sales for the device.
Two sites here in Switzerland showed it yesterday:
The first:
http://www.onlinebuchladen.ch/4905524946130.html
is still active and indicates a price of CHF188.00
The page on http://www.buchhaus.ch is now giving a 404 error.
OT:
by the way
a nice design study:’putting book back to ebook’
see: http://www.yankodesign.com/2013/08/21/putting-the-book-back-in-ebook/