Sony Releases Numbers On PRS Sales
The Wall Street Journal has an
article on PRS Sales numbers. Sales numbers have been a hot topic of discussion around here, but scarce as hen's teeth to actually come by, so with no further ado:
Quote:
This week, though, Sony for the first time disclosed that it sold 300,000 units of its Reader Digital Book globally since the device launched in October 2006.
Steve Haber, senior vice president of personal mobile and imaging division for Sony, says the unit growth is above Sony’s expectations.
[snip]
In addition, Sony said over three million e-books have been downloaded to the devices in that time.
“[That number is] strictly books, not to be confused with newspapers or blogs,” Haber says, implicitly referring to Sony rival, Amazon.com’s Kindle, which can wirelessly download newspapers and periodicals.
[snip]
The company is also boosting the number of books it sells through its online e-book store to 100,000 by the end of the year from 57,000 currently.
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Apparently the time-line for boosting the booklist has slipped a bit from what they were expecting to do last month.
The rest of the article is mostly a re-hash of what is, to us, old news (doubtless for the uninitiated amongst the WSJ's readership) and includes a quick primer on how the PRS is different from the Kindle.
But buried in the second to last paragraph is this tidbit: "... Sony says it plans to launch a wireless e-book device, though it won’t specify when." That's a public repetition of what they told us in a conference call just before the PRS700 released, so I think we can take it as a good sign for those longing for a wireless PRS.
So, what are your thoughts on the sales numbers? Higher than you expected? Lower? About what you thought?
Anyone care to venture an opinion as to what it might mean for the future of the PRS line, and e-reading devices in general?