14 DAY TRIAL // This week Sony announced it was partnering up with Hollywood-serving company Ease Entertainment, in an attempt to push its 13.3-inch eReaders.
After saying good-bye to its eBook reader business in the US and handing it to Kobo, Sony makes a counter-intuitive move by announcing a huge and expensive 13.3-inch e-Paper device (Digital Paper) for the American market.
The device is set to arrive in May and will retail for an impressive $1,100 / €794. The digital reader boasts a flexible e-Ink display with both optical and active digitizer touchscreen, so owners can fiddle with the device using their fingers but also an active stylus.
However, the super-costly piece comes with an important caveat that, we assume, will keep most customers at bay. The Digital Paper is only capable of playing nice with PDF files. So bottom line is that the only thing you’ll be able to do on the device is viewing and editing PDF documents.
Even so, Sony is confident that the device will attract enough customers and in order to help the eReader get more attention, the company has signed an agreement with Ease Entertainment. This partnership will place the eReaders at the center of the production process of Hollywood films.
Sony is starting this pilot program in collaboration with Ease Entertainment, a payroll and accounting company catering the motion picture and television production industry.
Ease Entertainment will pre-load the Digital Paper with its own Digital Start Paperwork software, which has been designed to promote efficient work in studios and production companies.
President of Production of Screen Gems, a Sony Pictures Entertainment division, Glenn Gainor explained that “Storytelling is a global business. I travel the globe scouting locations, visiting sets and overseeing production teams.”
“Sets have traditionally been buried in paper, from scripts, call sheets, production notes and more. I’ve been testing Digital Paper for months and now I can’t imagine myself being without it. I can now keep ideas, notes and other great ideas in one device.”
Be that as it may, it’s still pretty strange that an accounting company has partnered up with Sony to push the Digital Paper as good value.
At $1,100 / €794 a pop, the Digital Paper is not cost effective at all, not when you have so many tablet models to choose from these days. With the same money, a customer could acquire two worthy tablets instead and even more if they are not looking for capable configurations.
That being said, even a mid-range tablet can offer more functionalities than the limited Sony Digital Paper device.
To conclude, it would be interesting to know how many Sony devices Ease Entertainment purchased and at what discount.