Sony reveals prototype 13.3-inch e-ink slate with stylus

[petrucci]

Originally Posted by Canuck_in_Japan

A thousand dollars for an ereader? They must be joking. Who would be insane enough to buy this? I'm going into Tokyo tomorrow to do a little shopping so I'll drop by the electronics department and see if they have any.

I suspect that at least a few people have been let out of the wards.

I want it to read pdfs. Smaller e-readers do not handle them well because of the small screen size. The Kindle DX is only half the size of the Sony.

I suspect that others will want it for the same reason. People post frequently to one of the sub forums asking about reading pdfs on e-readers. Until now, the overall response has been get an lcd device, as e-ink ones do not handle them well.

Right now I am just debating placing an order. If it were for sale on Sony's site, I would be less hesitant. However, I do not know the sellers that have been mentioned.

[Canuck_in_Japan]

Originally Posted by HarryT

Extremely unlikely you'll find one. This is not a retail item.

Ahh in that case you're right. Makes sense though. Not even a Japanese person would pay 100,000 yen for an ereader and this is the land of being ravaged at retail.

[Canuck_in_Japan]

Ok i haven't followed this thread very closely. What is it about this reader that makes it a thousand dollars? Is there some sort of special technology? Could they not just make a reader 3 times the size of a T3 for 3 times the price?

[ApK]

Originally Posted by Canuck_in_Japan

Ok i haven't followed this thread very closely. What is it about this reader that makes it a thousand dollars? Is there some sort of special technology? Could they not just make a reader 3 times the size of a T3 for 3 times the price?

It's not like adding a little more dough to make a bigger pizza. You need a different design and a different manufacturing process to make the bigger screen, and there is no economy of scale. Yet.
Also, I don't know if eink suffers in the same way early LCD display tech did, but in that case, defects on larger panels were much more likely, so usable yields were much lower, further raising costs.

[HarryT]

It's also being sold with a variety of business services to large organisations, so the $1000 is not just for the reader alone.

[markom]

Originally Posted by Canuck_in_Japan

Ok i haven't followed this thread very closely. What is it about this reader that makes it a thousand dollars? Is there some sort of special technology? Could they not just make a reader 3 times the size of a T3 for 3 times the price?

Next year, about this time or hopefully much earlier, there'll be even better 13" e-ink readers around, for probably half the price, but for now there are people willing to give 1000 $ gladly.

[Sil_liS]

Originally Posted by Canuck_in_Japan

Ok i haven't followed this thread very closely. What is it about this reader that makes it a thousand dollars? Is there some sort of special technology? Could they not just make a reader 3 times the size of a T3 for 3 times the price?

Did you read the information on Sony's page: http://www.sony.co.jp/SonyInfo/News/...201311/13-146/?

The price is at the bottom of the page. What I got from Google translate was:

"DPT-S1" 98,000 yen digital paper: market estimated price

※ "market estimated price" is about the pre-launch of the product, we have to estimate the selling price in the market.
The selling price of the actual product depends on the combination of the solutions and services system configuration.

I don't know how marketing works in Japan. In Europe, if I would read something like this I would assume that this is the minimum price and any services would cost extra, but I have encountered cases when the price included something that you could opt out of and get the product for a better price.

[Kumabjorn]

Originally Posted by Canuck_in_Japan

A thousand dollars for an ereader? They must be joking. Who would be insane enough to buy this? I'm going into Tokyo tomorrow to do a little shopping so I'll drop by the electronics department and see if they have any.

Any possibility you can visit Sony's showroom in Yurakucho? I'm fairly sure they will have developers and engineers there to answer questions on launch day. At lesat they used too.

Sony doesn't position it as an e-Reader, they term it Digital Paper. Comes with stylus and its capacity for Reading your handwritten Kanji and transforming them to digital text is astounding. I'm sure you know what administrative productivity is like in Japan. That is where the potential comes in.

[Kumabjorn]

Originally Posted by HarryT

Extremely unlikely you'll find one. This is not a retail item.

Actually Harry, if you know where to go they will be available, probably at a 10% markup. However, since shops in Rakuten has allready made them available at MSRP I Think you might be able to find them at a miniscule discount, or at least that you can haggle for one.

Sure, you won't find them in the equivalent of John Lewis, but Akihabara is filled with small back Alley shops that specialize in things you can't get anywhere else. And no, not illegal stuff.

[HansTWN]

Originally Posted by Kumabjorn

Any possibility you can visit Sony's showroom in Yurakucho? I'm fairly sure they will have developers and engineers there to answer questions on launch day. At lesat they used too.

Sony doesn't position it as an e-Reader, they term it Digital Paper. Comes with stylus and its capacity for Reading your handwritten Kanji and transforming them to digital text is astounding. I'm sure you know what administrative productivity is like in Japan. That is where the potential comes in.

If the Kanji handwriting recognition works like it does on PCs and in Android/IOS then it will be very slow. Such systems do exist for many years. Much slower than actual handwriting since stroke accuracy is required. Using phonetic input I am much faster than any local using handwriting input (in Chinese). The only advantage really is that there is no learning curve, so people use it anyway (rather than just invest a few hours to learn a better system). But you are right --- that seems perfect for bureaucrats. Avoid real change at any cost.

[joblack]

If somebody knows where to get it in Tokyo please publish it here. I'll send my friend to get me one ...

[coloraday]

Before this, there was literally no means of reading PDF's without straining your eyes. It's a shame people are, like sheep, so iMinded. Otherwise, there would have been a higher demand for this, and as a result, it would have had a more reasonable price tag.

[ApK]

Originally Posted by coloraday

Before this, there was literally no means of reading PDF's without straining your eyes.

Of course there was. You could always read PDFs like they were meant to be read: printed out on paper.

Sheepism is not why iPad captured the market rather than large eink devices. It's because reading PDFs is not, has not been, and likely never will be, a daily, mass market concern. iPads (any good tablet, of course) does the stuff a huge number of people actually want to every day far better than a large format eink device could possibly hope to.

[petrucci]

Originally Posted by ApK

Of course there was. You could always read PDFs like they were meant to be read: printed out on paper.

Sheepism is not why iPad captured the market rather than large eink devices. It's because reading PDFs is not, has not been, and likely never will be, a daily, mass market concern. iPads (any good tablet, of course) does the stuff a huge number of people actually want to every day far better than a large format eink device could possibly hope to.

I think that reading pdfs is very much a mass market concern. Further this device lets you annotate them as well. It has lots potential in business and education.

However, devices designed to read pdfs are not nearly as profitable as close walled systems. Big companies would rather sell you content or show you ads. Apple not only makes a killing off of their hardware, they then take a cut of the profit from the apps, and music.

[markom]

Sony 13.3 inch e-Reader will not see a Retail Release in Japan

http://goodereader.com/blog/electron...lease-in-japan

... Starting December 8th it will be available in Japan for around $1200 US or 98,000 yen

... wide-spread commercial release in May of 2014 in North America !?