Who Do You Suppose Is Talking To Verizon?

[NatCh]

Reports of Several E-Reading Device Manufacturers Talking With Verizon

Thanks to lee1234 for pointing this out to us!

The folks over at Yahoo Tech are reporting that as many as five different e-reading device makers have approached them about providing wireless service for their devices -- presumably, they're looking for something like Amazon has set up with Sprint.

Tony Lewis, who heads an initiative within Verizon Wireless to provide access to non-phone devices, said Wednesday that five companies have approached Verizon about wireless connections for e-readers.

"You're going to see a lot of e-readers out there," Lewis said. "The interest level is tremendous."

Lewis wouldn't say which manufacturers Verizon has been talking to. But he hinted that they are looking at entering parts of the e-book market that the Kindle doesn't focus on, like college textbooks.

Buried in the third-to-last paragraph is this tidbit: AT&T is eying the game as well:

AT&T Inc., the second largest wireless carrier after Verizon Wireless, has also been talking to e-reader manufacturers, said Ralph de la Vega, the company's head of consumer services. Since AT&T's network is more similar to ones used overseas, it could support international e-book readers, he noted. The Kindle can download books only in the U.S.

It doesn't take much thought to guess that Sony's probably in there somewhere -- not only have they committed to releasing a wireless Reader at some, as yet unspecified, future time, they're actually mentioned in the article, but only by way of neither confirming nor denying that they're one of the mysterious five.

Of course, those keeping count know that any group of five e-reading device manufacturers would almost have to include Sony, especially if Amazon can't also be in the group. The pool has been expanding lately, but it's still a pretty small puddle.

So, assuming Sony is most likely in there, who do you think the other four might be?

Via Electronista.com

EDIT: D'oh! I just realized that wallcraft had already posted this over here. Sorry 'bout that, I wasn't trying to ignore you.

[Kris777]

Maybe jetBook?

[grooks]

Astak, Readius, Jetbook and Plastic Logic.

Those are my guesses.

[NatCh]

Readius is a good one

I'd like PL to be one of them as well, I suppose.

[searcher]

Readius is designed especially for mobile carriers . It's compact, light and can be used as phone. They have color prototype too. According to readius blog they will launch the device very soon. It's not so hard to guess which device will choose AT&T and Verizon.

[HarryT]

This is extremely disappointing news. It would, IMHO, be a disastrous mistake for providers for go with the (pretty much) US-only CDMA system, as opposed to the world-wide GSM standard.

[Format C:]

In the GSM - UMTS world, I'd bet on Sony-Ericsson, iPhone and a brand new iRex reader (sorry for the DR owners, it'll be suddenly discontinued in the middle of an upgrade).

[NatCh]

Originally Posted by HarryT

This is extremely disappointing news. It would, IMHO, be a disastrous mistake for providers for go with the (pretty much) US-only CDMA system, as opposed to the world-wide GSM standard.

I'd expect you to be pleased that AT&T is looking things over then, HarryT:

AT&T Inc., the second largest wireless carrier after Verizon Wireless, has also been talking to e-reader manufacturers, said Ralph de la Vega, the company's head of consumer services. Since AT&T's network is more similar to ones used overseas, it could support international e-book readers, he noted. The Kindle can download books only in the U.S.

(emphasis added).

[pilotbob]

Originally Posted by HarryT

This is extremely disappointing news. It would, IMHO, be a disastrous mistake for providers for go with the (pretty much) US-only CDMA system, as opposed to the world-wide GSM standard.

Meh. If cell phone manufacturers can make the same device for both a CDMA and GSM networks, why can't reader manufacturers do the same thing?

BOb

[rhadin]

It seems pretty clear that one of the group of 5 has to be Plastic Logic. Absent wireless, how would the newspaper partnerships flourish? Using your computer to download a half-dozen books every couple of weeks is no big deal, but people will not be happy if they have to do it daily -- and multiple times a day -- for their newspapers and magazines.

Speaking of which, The Economist reports that Time, Inc. is looking into digital distribution of some or all of its magazines, including following the U.S. cell phone paradigm of subsidizing the device in exchange for long-term subscription to multiple magazines.

[eal]

Sony would almost certainly be one of the firms as Verizon is the provider of wireless broadband solutions for Sony notebooks.

[eal]

Originally Posted by Format C:

In the GSM - UMTS world, I'd bet on Sony-Ericsson, iPhone and a brand new iRex reader (sorry for the DR owners, it'll be suddenly discontinued in the middle of an upgrade).

Doesn't the iPhone still have 3 more years on their exclusive agreement with AT&T?

[HarryT]

Originally Posted by NatCh

I'd expect you to be pleased that AT&T is looking things over then, HarryT: (emphasis added).

Yes, very pleased!

[bhartman36]

"Partnering" is no big deal, in my eyes. What will be interesting is if any of the e-book manufacturers get the same kind of deal that Amazon got. The other manufacturers aren't going to pick up a lot of interest if their users have to pay for their networks on a monthly basis. (I realize that the Kindle network isn't "free, as in beer", but I'm sure it would be less palatable to people to have to pay per month, rather than having the network built into the cost of the device.

[eal]

Originally Posted by bhartman36

"Partnering" is no big deal, in my eyes. What will be interesting is if any of the e-book manufacturers get the same kind of deal that Amazon got. The other manufacturers aren't going to pick up a lot of interest if their users have to pay for their networks on a monthly basis. (I realize that the Kindle network isn't "free, as in beer", but I'm sure it would be less palatable to people to have to pay per month, rather than having the network built into the cost of the device.

what if they had a cellphone (and more recently netbook) type model, heavily subsidized device with a monthly fee?

Get a Sony Reader for $49 with a $25/month connect plan with a 2 year contract?