Google and Sony have teamed up to try to take on Amazon and the e-book market today, with Google making its entire library of public-domain e-books available for free on the Sony Reader, Sony’s popular e-book reader. With the new move, Sony has 600,000 titles available compared to Amazon whose library is just over 245,000.
Google’s books are usually available as PDFs but will now be available in ePub format for the Sony reader.
At the same time, Sony announced that they were lowering the price of their PRS-700 reader to $349.99, making it $10 USD cheaper than the newly released Amazon Kindle 2.
The companies note that Google’s books will not work with Sony’s older PRS-500 reader but are fully compatible with the PRS-505 and the 700.
“We founded Google Book Search on the premise that anyone, anywhere, anytime should have the tools to explore the great works of history and culture,” said Adam Smith, product management director for Google Print. “We believe in an open platform for accessing and reading books.”
Result for: cult
Sony Computer Entertainment UK has announced that the PlayStation 3 gaming console has reached a new milestone in the UK; 2 million sold. The company also noted that the PSP handheld has now reached 3 million sold.
According to an interview with GI.biz however, Sony Europe senior VP Ray Maguire admitted the company in general is facing a very tough time, namely because of the ongoing worldwide recession. Maguire was confident that they console will sell another million over the next 12 months, as people flock to entertainment systems.
“I think it’s a tough time for everyone,” he said. “Probably more so in the UK, because we’re hit by the effects of currencies - euro, pound, yen and dollar - and the weakness of the pound is definitely an issue that affects us more than the rest of SCEE.
“We have to do as much in this office as we can to make sure that we can build on the success we had last year in terms of the units we sold, great IPs that we had to bring to market.
“This year we’ve got even more, even better product to put out there - but trading is difficult, it’s really tough. Just credit insurance - credit limits are going to be challenging for the whole of the year.
“These are things which are completely out of Sony’s control - it’s about the environment in which we trade, but we have to be responsible, we have to do what we need to do to make sure we give back to the shareholders what they need.”
Result for: cult
Nintendo is already advising would-be buyers in Europe to buy the DSi early to avoid almost inevitable stock shortages during the holiday season.
The handheld goes on sale in the region on April 3rd and UK general manager David Yarnton has added that it will be difficult to keep enough supply to satisfy demand, especially during the hectic holiday shopping season.
“I always advise people to buy early,” noted Yarnton. “One of the things that people don’t seem to understand is that factories are producing constantly; they don’t peak and trough.
“So we’re producing product all the time, but then everyone wants it all at the one end of the year. It’s just so hard to try and keep up.”
Retail chains have already reported strong demand for the DSi, which will sell for GBP 149.
