Sony held a press conference to announce the launch of their PRS500, and Norio Ohga personally hosted the press conference.
During the press conference, Norio Ohga gave an impassioned speech to promote how good their product is and how easy it is to use. For this product, Sony had developed a BBeB e-book format. Users only need to install the software on their PC to download the e-book.
Moreover, their product had a four-level gray six-inch e-ink screen with an 800 × 600 resolution. The entire body had less than 20 buttons, and it weighed only 250 grams. The body's storage space was 64 megabytes, and it could support their TF card expansion. The battery power could continuously flip through 7500 pages …
The retail price is 350 USD. This is slightly lower than the previous generation, and the product is upgraded.
After the press conference ended, Norio Ohga thought everyone should be there to ask about the details of the product. But he noticed something was amiss. Why did everyone leave?
He asked a reporter from a Sony media company and found out that Aiwa had also held a press conference to introduce their e-book.
What? When did Aiwa say they are going to produce e-books? Didn't they say there are only Wind & Rain Electronics and Amazon?
Norio Ohga sent one of his men to Aiwa's press conference to find out what Aiwa's product is. Why is it such a coincidence that their product will be released on the same day?
This was done on purpose!
Norio Ohga immediately browsed the internet to see if Amazon, Wind & Rain Electronics, etc. had also introduced their e-books. Or was this product developed by Aiwa?
Feng Yu looked at the news and saw that Wind and Rain Electronics, Aiwa Electronics, Amazon, Aiwa, etc. had launched their e-readers at the same time. Philips, Thomson, and other companies were also helping these e-readers to sell in Europe and other regions.
Norio Ohga was furious. These companies had also chosen to release their products today to target Sony. But Norio Ohga was not worried. Sony had the experience in developing e-books, and their products were well designed and powerful.
Furthermore, Sony was the one who held this press conference first. Maybe those companies had not produced their products yet and were trying to attract attention.
Anyway, Sony will not lose this time!
Heitaro Nakajima stood on the stage and showed off their new product to the media and industry representatives.
The body is smaller than Sony's, but the screen is the same size. The resolution and grayscale are the same. However, they placed the numeric buttons on the side, and there were only five function buttons below it. There were only ten buttons on the entire body, which made it look more concise.
But the controls are better than Sony's. For example, the page-turning speed is faster, and the battery can flip 10,000 pages continuously. It supports almost all the major electronic document formats.
The body of the book is thinner, only 9.9mm, and the length and width are smaller than Sony's book.
Sony's products only come in two colors, white and black. Although these two colors look good, many guests were surprised when AIWA showed off their multi-colored products.
The red one was very beautiful, and the pink one was not bad either. The silver one was also very shiny.
What else did they see? On the back of the body, there was a Japanese flag. Does this mean that this product is only sold in Japan?
This made more people feel that he should be praised. We, the Japanese, want to use our e-books with the Japanese flag printed on it.
The guests also heard something important. This e-book also supports voice reading. Although the voice was emotionless and sounded very mechanical, it was still very advanced.
Heitaro Nakajima immediately told them a piece of good news. AIWA's online music store had been separated into another department. This department is for e-book downloads. There are more e-books to choose from. Currently, there are more than 100,000 e-books, and the number is still increasing.
Most importantly, AIWA had hired a famous voice actress to read the book, and the readers can listen to the book as if they were in the book. AIWA's audio technology ensures that the sound is as real as possible. Listen to the book.
Listen to books. Aiwa's product can really listen to books! It is not that cold electronic voice!
But will the RAM be too small for this type of e-book?
They realized that Aiwa's RAM is available in 128 MB and 256 MB versions. Aiwa's RAM is much bigger than Sony's products, and it also supports SD card expansion. This will solve their concerns.
The 128M RAM is only 379 USD, and the 256M RAM is only 399 USD. AIWA's RAM is much higher than Sony's.
The most important feature of this product is that it supports wireless internet. It can connect to WIFI, and there is a built-in wireless network card. Users can use the e-reader to log into Aiwa's e-book online store and download books with one click. It's very convenient.
Users do not need a PC and can also download books they are interested in. Also, they can download books anytime. It is very convenient.
After the launch of this product, everyone realized that Sony's e-books are rubbish!
Sony had wanted to welcome a craze of customers after the product launch. But they realized that there are not many customers asking about their products.
They had prepared 100,000 units in Japan and another 400,000 units in the European and US markets. They thought they will be sold out by the end of the year.
But why are there not many people paying attention to this? Is it because the news of the product launch is not big enough, or is it because everyone had not seen the news?
Of course not. Everyone had seen the news of Sony's new product launch. But when AIWA and other companies announced their e-books, there are comparisons of these two products on the internet.
From the appearance, AIWA and other companies are winning!
From the performance, AIWA and other companies are winning!
From the content, AIWA and other companies are winning!
Other than the price, Sony does not have any advantage. All of a sudden, Sony's products will be on a different level, and it will make Sony's products look cheap!
Sony had always been synonymous with advanced consumer electronics. But now, it had fallen to this level.
AIWA's shop not far from Sony's shop is packed with customers. Many people were very interested in this e-reader.
AIWA is right. With this e-book, it is equivalent to having a mobile library. It is more convenient to use it to read novels or professional books.
So, Sony's shop staff can only watch AIWA's e-books selling well, and they have nothing else to do.
Norio Ohga switched off his PC. He realized that Sony had lost again!
Impossible. How can the powerful Sony lose again and again? Upgrade. They must upgrade their products immediately and get back the market share!
… …
You've already exceeded your reading limit for today. If you want to read more, please log in.
Login
Select text and click 'Report' to let us know about any bad translation.
