Description

Sharp's plans to launch two e-book readers in Japan in December. To be sold under the Galapagos brand-name, the company hopes to sell a million units within their first year on sale. Talks with Verizon Wireless mean the US is likely to be the second place to see them, sometime in 2011.

Transcript

Sharp Introduces the Galapagos E-book Reader IDG News Service Martin Williams: We jumped first to eBook readers. The android based devices will sold under the Galapagos brand name. The model on the right has a 5.5 inch screen and the one on the left a 10 inch screen. Sharp plans to launch the readers and an eBook store in Japan in December and hopes to sell a million units with the first year on sale. Talks with Verizon Wireless means the U.S is likely to be the second place to see them sometime in 2011. Sharp says they’re meant to compete with products like Amazon’s Kindle and Sony Reader but thanks to their bright colorful LCD screens shiny cases they’re shorter draw comparisons with tablet PCs like Apple’s iPad and Samsung’s Galaxy tab. Future plans call for the addition of why the econo services music, video and a web browser which could further distance them from the eBook market but unlike tablet PCs they won’t necessarily be able to run Android Software of the user’s choice. Price could do a lot to define how consumers categorize them but Sharp would disclose them on Monday pricing and full technical details will come closer to the launch. The Japanese models will play books in the XMDF format. It was developed by Sharp and is largely confined to use in Japan. It offers features such as the ability to change font sizes without altering the content and layer of a page and the imbedding of video but sharp said it will later add support for the ePod format used by Barnes & Noble and Sony in their eBook readers. We’ll also get other document formats including HTML, the basic language of the text internet and Adobe’s PDF. In Tokyo this is Martin Williams IDG News Service.