14 DAY TRIAL // Although the iPad has proven to be wildly successful in the short time sine its release, a senior Sony representative recently stated that the Japanese company isn't interested in developing a color eReader destined to take on Apple's slate, dismissing yet again speculations regarding a future Sony Vaio tablet.
“I think recently developed color e-paper devices are suited for displaying movies,” said Fujio Noguchi, Deputy President Digital Reading Business Division at Sony Electronics in an interview with Tech-On.
“But I believe that color e-paper should be employed for e-book readers with a focus on displaying texts. So, we are sending such requests to e-paper device makers,” continued Mr. Noguchi.
In addition, the company official compared the present day color e-paper displays with early ink-jet printers pointing out that color reproduction still isn't satisfactory, further advancements in technology being needed before the technology can compete with LCD panels.
“In the case of e-paper, too, it is difficult to display high-quality colors at first. But, as the market expands, its technologies will evolve,” said Fujio Noguchi.
The company's reasoning behind this decision is based on the potential of the e-Book market, as Sony thinks this will expand in order to reach the same levels as those held by portable music.
Right now, in the US, the size of the e-book reader market is about several million units per year.
Compared to portable music that sells about 40 to 50 million units per year in the US, this is indeed small, but books still haven't went through the digitalization process that music and video underwent a long time ago.
As a result, Sony expects this to grow much faster than the online music/video delivery business did in the past.
Finally, for the 2012 fiscal year, the Japanese company wants to acquire a 40% share of the global electronic book market.