MobileRead Forums - View Single Post - Sony PRS-700 Reader launch in New York City

DMcCunney · 10-03-2008, 06:13 PM

Last night, Sony held a PR event in New York City to publicize the launch of the Sony PRS-700 reader. In a neat bit of symbolism, the launch was held at the Library Hotel, a "boutique" hotel in midtown Manhattan. (Room numbers use the Dewey Decimal system.) Sony's event took place in Bookmarks, a 14th floor rooftop bar. MR staffer Nate The Great was originally scheduled to cover the event, but ran into a last minute problem that required him to cancel. Alex Turcic remembered that I lived in NYC, and asked if I could substitute as MR's reporter at the event. Sure. I live in walking distance...

The presentation was given by Steve Haber, who is the head of the effort that produces the reader. The audience included Sony and E Ink representatives, members of the press, and representatives from publishers including Random House, Ballantine Books, Hachette Filipacchi, and HarperCollins. The actual presentation took about 20 minutes. The rest of the event was socializing with a Sony catered open bar. Technical details about the reader beyond what were presented in the Sony press release Nate already wrote about were scarce, but those will doubtless be forthcoming.

The most significant point for me about the event was that it occurred at all. One of the questions about the dedicated reader market was whether it was big enough for someone like Sony to address profitably. Sony is a very large corporation, and senior management has a fiduciary responsibility to the shareholders to invest corporate funds where they will get the best return. A company like Sony needs big numbers to justify an investment. Is the market for dedicated readers large enough for Sony to profitably address? It would appear that Sony thinks so.

Steve Haber, the event's host, is President of the Digital Reading Business Division. This is a newly created unit of Sony, who combined three other operations to create the unit. They also moved the operation from Japan to San Diego, so reader operations are now headquartered in the United States. Fujiyo Naguchi, who had run the Japanese operation, relocated to San Diego to work for Steve.

Steve spent most of his time talking about Sony's commitment to the effort, and the steps they were taking to nurture and grow the reader market. An assortment of things were revealed.

First, Sony does plan to introduce wireless capability in in a future model. But as he put it "It's all about being open!" The capability, when available, will not be tied to a particular provider or service. Sony seems to want reader owners to be able to get content from a variety of sources, and not be limited only to the Sony store. However, the Sony Connect site is getting an upgrade. By the end of the month, there should be a new design with better appearance, and an improved search function to help buyers find what they are looking for.

Second, Sony is aware that content is king. Steve stated that Sony had about 50,000 titles in the Sony store now, but "My people are all going to have heart attacks when I say this..." they are pushing hard to have 100,000 titles available for the reader by the holiday season.

Sony has also mounted several marketing initiatives to broaden the reader market.

They had already launched the reader in the US, then in the UK and Canada. Next month, as previously reported, they will launch in France.

In an interesting contrast with Amazon, Sony is partnering with brick and mortar retailers. Sony is already partnered with Borders and Target here in the US, and Waterstones in Britain. This year, they have 7,000 retail outlets. Next year, they hope to increase that to 30,000. One of the outstanding questions on eBooks is "where do they leave the retailer?" The book retailing industry is under immense pressure. There are increasingly few independent bookstores, as large chains like Barnes and Noble and Borders expand into new areas, offering pricing the independents can't match. And those chains are in turn under pressure from discount "warehouse" retailers like CostCo and Sam's Club (who also sell books, and are an important factor in the industry.) People normally buy eBooks over the web. As demand shifts to eBooks, booksellers in brick and mortar establishments get increasingly squeezed. They aren't the ones making the sale. By partnering with existing retailers, Sony gives them a stake in the process, and broadens the distribution channel for the reader.

To go along with this, Sony is launching a campaign called Reader Revolution. Representatives will be visiting retailers with demonstration units, to give customers hands-on experience with the reader. Steve commented that the majority of the market wasn't familiar with eBooks and readers, and the response to them was likely to be "Huh?". But put a reader in their hands, and show them, and recognition would set in. "Oh, yeah! That's pretty cool!"

Sony has a month long promotional effort taking place in NYC called ReadIn. A man named David Farrow will spend a month in a window at 39th and 5th Avenue. He'll have food and drink and and a Sony Reader, and will spend a month eating, drinking, sleeping, and reading on a Reader under the public eye. When he has to do things like go to the bathroom, he won't have to do that in public. Volunteers will sit in for him while he is otherwise engaged. Sony will donate eBooks to schools based on page turns and books read in their reader.

Sony is also reaching out to schools to be an eBook supplier, offering eBooks and eBook library management software. The first 100 schools to sign up for the Sony program will get five free Sony Readers as part of the offer.

There were ten demo units in the hands of Reader Revolution representatives. I played with one briefly. Screen refresh was pleasantly fast, taking about a quarter of a second for a page turn. The rep indicated that had been a focus of development efforts on the 700. The touch screen capabilities worked well, and you could turn pages by swiping the screen. What direction you swiped to move backward or forward was configurable, and you could chose left to right/right to left or bottom to top/top to bottom to page in the desired direction. You can also swipe and hold to page forward or backward more than one page at a time.

The reader offers front lighting on the screen border, to handle the case where you wish to read in a dark room at night.

And what may be the most significant upgrade from my viewpoint was a note taking utility. You could highlight a range of text with your finger or included stylus, and attach a note to it using an on-screen keyboard, or you could attach a note to a bookmark. At the moment, notes are tied to text selections of bookmarks, and aren't available independently. The touch screen also means another reader complaint is addressed. Other readers let you highlight a word and get a dictionary definition. With onscreen highlighting by finger or stylus, it now becomes possible to have a dictionary look up function on the PRS-700. (I don't know at the moment if dictionaries that can be used that way are available.)

The fact that the Notes capability exists leaves room for expansion down the road. It wasn't mentioned in the presentation, but an onscreen keyboard coupled with wifi has obvious possibilities.

I had a chance to talk a bit with Steve after the presentation. One question I asked was about color support. He indicated it was being looked at, but would not be a near term happening. I also asked about actual unit sales. Steve said he didn't know exact numbers, which I could believe. Sony is selling through retailers as well as direct, and shipments to retailers are not the same thing as sales to consumers. He did state they were seeing significant interest and demand. He talked about unit sales in vague terms. I hope to get more details from him in the near future, plus answers to a couple of questions I didn't think to ask at the time. He's traveling back to San Diego as we speak, but mentioned a possible call on Monday to clarify things we talked about and answer questions.

I also spent some time talking to Christian Smythe. Chris is Director of eBooks Merchandising for Sony Software and Media Services, and the man responsible for getting content for the reader. Chris made it clear Sony is well aware that more content is required to compete with the Kindle, and they are pushing hard to get it. He is also ware that pricing is a concern, and talked about their general $11.99 price on titles. We chatted a bit about pricing strategies, and my observation that most folks didn't see why a an ebook should cost more than a comparable mass market paperback. Chris asked me to follow up with him in email. so we'll be talking some more. I hope to do a formal interview with him for MobileRead about his job and Sony's efforts in the market.

The other contact of the evening was Sriram Peruvemba, VP of Marketing for E Ink. Sriram got involved when I asked Steve about the supply chain, and whether there were constraints on reader growth due to limitations in the supply of E Ink screens. Steve and Sriram told me that PVI is no longer the sole source for eInk displays. Other manufacturers, like LG, have licensed the technology and are gearing up to produce displays. Steve said "I have a lot of worries, but supply of eInk displays isn't one of them!" Sriram mentioned a manufacturer who had bought the production facilities of another which had gone Chapter 11, and confirmed that plenty of production capacity existed. I'll be contacting him shortly to get more information on E Ink's partners and future plans.

As I mentioned, the most important fact to emerge from the presentation was Sony's ongoing commitment to the Reader. They see a large market, and are moving aggressively to serve it. Their moves thus far are evidence of a strong commitment.

I've attached reduced size photos from the event to this post. Folks interested in the full size versions can look at the set on Flickr
______
Dennis

10-03-2008, 06:13 PM	#1
DMcCunney New York Editor Posts: 6,384 Karma: 16540415 Join Date: Aug 2007 Device: PalmTX, Pocket eDGe, Alcatel Fierce 4, RCA Viking Pro 10, Nexus 7	Sony PRS-700 Reader launch in New York City Last night, Sony held a PR event in New York City to publicize the launch of the Sony PRS-700 reader. In a neat bit of symbolism, the launch was held at the Library Hotel, a "boutique" hotel in midtown Manhattan. (Room numbers use the Dewey Decimal system.) Sony's event took place in Bookmarks, a 14th floor rooftop bar. MR staffer Nate The Great was originally scheduled to cover the event, but ran into a last minute problem that required him to cancel. Alex Turcic remembered that I lived in NYC, and asked if I could substitute as MR's reporter at the event. Sure. I live in walking distance... The presentation was given by Steve Haber, who is the head of the effort that produces the reader. The audience included Sony and E Ink representatives, members of the press, and representatives from publishers including Random House, Ballantine Books, Hachette Filipacchi, and HarperCollins. The actual presentation took about 20 minutes. The rest of the event was socializing with a Sony catered open bar. Technical details about the reader beyond what were presented in the Sony press release Nate already wrote about were scarce, but those will doubtless be forthcoming. The most significant point for me about the event was that it occurred at all. One of the questions about the dedicated reader market was whether it was big enough for someone like Sony to address profitably. Sony is a very large corporation, and senior management has a fiduciary responsibility to the shareholders to invest corporate funds where they will get the best return. A company like Sony needs big numbers to justify an investment. Is the market for dedicated readers large enough for Sony to profitably address? It would appear that Sony thinks so. Steve Haber, the event's host, is President of the Digital Reading Business Division. This is a newly created unit of Sony, who combined three other operations to create the unit. They also moved the operation from Japan to San Diego, so reader operations are now headquartered in the United States. Fujiyo Naguchi, who had run the Japanese operation, relocated to San Diego to work for Steve. Steve spent most of his time talking about Sony's commitment to the effort, and the steps they were taking to nurture and grow the reader market. An assortment of things were revealed. First, Sony does plan to introduce wireless capability in in a future model. But as he put it "It's all about being open!" The capability, when available, will not be tied to a particular provider or service. Sony seems to want reader owners to be able to get content from a variety of sources, and not be limited only to the Sony store. However, the Sony Connect site is getting an upgrade. By the end of the month, there should be a new design with better appearance, and an improved search function to help buyers find what they are looking for. Second, Sony is aware that content is king. Steve stated that Sony had about 50,000 titles in the Sony store now, but "My people are all going to have heart attacks when I say this..." they are pushing hard to have 100,000 titles available for the reader by the holiday season. Sony has also mounted several marketing initiatives to broaden the reader market. They had already launched the reader in the US, then in the UK and Canada. Next month, as previously reported, they will launch in France. In an interesting contrast with Amazon, Sony is partnering with brick and mortar retailers. Sony is already partnered with Borders and Target here in the US, and Waterstones in Britain. This year, they have 7,000 retail outlets. Next year, they hope to increase that to 30,000. One of the outstanding questions on eBooks is "where do they leave the retailer?" The book retailing industry is under immense pressure. There are increasingly few independent bookstores, as large chains like Barnes and Noble and Borders expand into new areas, offering pricing the independents can't match. And those chains are in turn under pressure from discount "warehouse" retailers like CostCo and Sam's Club (who also sell books, and are an important factor in the industry.) People normally buy eBooks over the web. As demand shifts to eBooks, booksellers in brick and mortar establishments get increasingly squeezed. They aren't the ones making the sale. By partnering with existing retailers, Sony gives them a stake in the process, and broadens the distribution channel for the reader. To go along with this, Sony is launching a campaign called Reader Revolution. Representatives will be visiting retailers with demonstration units, to give customers hands-on experience with the reader. Steve commented that the majority of the market wasn't familiar with eBooks and readers, and the response to them was likely to be "Huh?". But put a reader in their hands, and show them, and recognition would set in. "Oh, yeah! That's pretty cool!" Sony has a month long promotional effort taking place in NYC called ReadIn. A man named David Farrow will spend a month in a window at 39th and 5th Avenue. He'll have food and drink and and a Sony Reader, and will spend a month eating, drinking, sleeping, and reading on a Reader under the public eye. When he has to do things like go to the bathroom, he won't have to do that in public. Volunteers will sit in for him while he is otherwise engaged. Sony will donate eBooks to schools based on page turns and books read in their reader. Sony is also reaching out to schools to be an eBook supplier, offering eBooks and eBook library management software. The first 100 schools to sign up for the Sony program will get five free Sony Readers as part of the offer. There were ten demo units in the hands of Reader Revolution representatives. I played with one briefly. Screen refresh was pleasantly fast, taking about a quarter of a second for a page turn. The rep indicated that had been a focus of development efforts on the 700. The touch screen capabilities worked well, and you could turn pages by swiping the screen. What direction you swiped to move backward or forward was configurable, and you could chose left to right/right to left or bottom to top/top to bottom to page in the desired direction. You can also swipe and hold to page forward or backward more than one page at a time. The reader offers front lighting on the screen border, to handle the case where you wish to read in a dark room at night. And what may be the most significant upgrade from my viewpoint was a note taking utility. You could highlight a range of text with your finger or included stylus, and attach a note to it using an on-screen keyboard, or you could attach a note to a bookmark. At the moment, notes are tied to text selections of bookmarks, and aren't available independently. The touch screen also means another reader complaint is addressed. Other readers let you highlight a word and get a dictionary definition. With onscreen highlighting by finger or stylus, it now becomes possible to have a dictionary look up function on the PRS-700. (I don't know at the moment if dictionaries that can be used that way are available.) The fact that the Notes capability exists leaves room for expansion down the road. It wasn't mentioned in the presentation, but an onscreen keyboard coupled with wifi has obvious possibilities. I had a chance to talk a bit with Steve after the presentation. One question I asked was about color support. He indicated it was being looked at, but would not be a near term happening. I also asked about actual unit sales. Steve said he didn't know exact numbers, which I could believe. Sony is selling through retailers as well as direct, and shipments to retailers are not the same thing as sales to consumers. He did state they were seeing significant interest and demand. He talked about unit sales in vague terms. I hope to get more details from him in the near future, plus answers to a couple of questions I didn't think to ask at the time. He's traveling back to San Diego as we speak, but mentioned a possible call on Monday to clarify things we talked about and answer questions. I also spent some time talking to Christian Smythe. Chris is Director of eBooks Merchandising for Sony Software and Media Services, and the man responsible for getting content for the reader. Chris made it clear Sony is well aware that more content is required to compete with the Kindle, and they are pushing hard to get it. He is also ware that pricing is a concern, and talked about their general $11.99 price on titles. We chatted a bit about pricing strategies, and my observation that most folks didn't see why a an ebook should cost more than a comparable mass market paperback. Chris asked me to follow up with him in email. so we'll be talking some more. I hope to do a formal interview with him for MobileRead about his job and Sony's efforts in the market. The other contact of the evening was Sriram Peruvemba, VP of Marketing for E Ink. Sriram got involved when I asked Steve about the supply chain, and whether there were constraints on reader growth due to limitations in the supply of E Ink screens. Steve and Sriram told me that PVI is no longer the sole source for eInk displays. Other manufacturers, like LG, have licensed the technology and are gearing up to produce displays. Steve said "I have a lot of worries, but supply of eInk displays isn't one of them!" Sriram mentioned a manufacturer who had bought the production facilities of another which had gone Chapter 11, and confirmed that plenty of production capacity existed. I'll be contacting him shortly to get more information on E Ink's partners and future plans. As I mentioned, the most important fact to emerge from the presentation was Sony's ongoing commitment to the Reader. They see a large market, and are moving aggressively to serve it. Their moves thus far are evidence of a strong commitment. I've attached reduced size photos from the event to this post. Folks interested in the full size versions can look at the set on Flickr ______ Dennis Attached Thumbnails Last edited by DMcCunney; 10-07-2008 at 09:17 AM. Reason: Arrgghhh. Typos.