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As a long time Sony Reader user, I have no doubts that Sony can release a worthwhile hardware reader, but the problems with the Librie were not the device but the lack of worthwhile content.
The book industry here in Japan appears from the outside to be a cartel. I very rarely see Japanese books at reduced price even amazon.co.jp struggles to do much than a few percent with free delivery. Conversely the second-hand market is strong mostly due to the chain store "book off" - although again there is a certain amount of price fixing based on the original book price given a single very dominant player.
If Toppan / Asahi / KDDI and Sony can somehow convince the Japanese book industry to release eBooks without draconian restrictions I would be very interested. If like with the Librie content it is time-limited content that I cannot unlock, then I am not interested and I would be surprised if it results in new success for Sony.
I wish Sony the best of luck and hope that fear of losing out makes the book industry at least a bit more flexible than it has been in the past.
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