Sony Readies Two New Readers With Supposedly Attractive Prices

The competition on the e-reader market has been growing in intensity and, in order to cope with added pressure from rivals and other devices with similar functionality, Sony is reportedly making steps towards the launch of two new products, known as PRS-350 and PRS-650.

Until late last year, Sony had only Amazon and Barnes and Noble as rivals on the e-reader market, and their respective Kindle and Nook have evolved over the past months.

Amazon and B&N even reduced the prices of their devices quite significantly, but this did not prompt Sony to do the same, the company deciding, instead, to offer a feature set that justifies the existing price tags.

Now that the back-to-school season is upon the world, Sony is supposedly preparing two new models with E ink technology and affordable prices.

For one, the devices will be thinner and lighter than their predecessors, possibly even measuring less than 10mm, and this advantage will come as a bonus to the better performance that the report implies.

Also, the two readers will feature improved contrast and faster page turns, contributing to the better reading experience.

The PRS-350 will have a five inch screen, whereas the PRS-650 will have a display of six inches, and both will have 2GB of internal storage instead of the 512MB on current Sony Readers.

What's more, the latter will come with WiFi and, possibly, free 3G, whereas the PRS-350 will lack wireless capabilities altogether, making it an upgraded PRS-300.

As for supported file formats, Sony Insider lists Adobe PDF, Microsoft Word, BBeB Book, ePub/ACS4 and Adobe Digital Edition.

The Sony PRS-350 and PRS-650 will have their own USB 2.0 connectors and the Sony Reader UI with a new home interface, as well as the note-taking software that is already available on the PRS-600.

Finally, the devices are expected to have the same battery life as their predecessors, about two weeks to be exact. Unfortunately, pricing details remain a mystery, though figures will supposedly be attractive.