Sony Plans Web Bookstore

Sony has announced plans to introduce a web bookstore for Internet users, with a bank of 10,000 books from six publishers. The bookstore, called 'Sony Connect' will be launched alongside Sony’s electronics book reader, on October 1, 2006. Sony’s marketing vice president, Ron Hawkins said that the sale of the device and launch of the book store were delayed to work out a format for integration of the device, service and computer software required to connect the two.

The device and service will let users download from the Really Simple Syndication (RSS) feeds of popular blogs such as Salon, Slate, Huffington Post, Engadget and Gizmodo. The device will be available for about $350, and users of the new service, Connect, will receive a $50 credit. However, the device only downloads material from approved feeds and restricts users from freely downloading from any RSS feed.

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A spokesman said that electronic books cost about 25 percent less, on average than the cover price of physical books. Hawkins also said that although the service will initially focus on books and personal content, he did not rule out the possibility of including Newspapers and other periodicals in the near future.

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