With the present move towards online publishing more prevalent than ever before, The NextWomen delve a little deeper into the e-readers which are making this possible.

The Observer last month reported that American paper – the Seattle Post Intelligencer – was to continue as an online publication, after the global recession and lack of advertising revenue meant their only option was to go out of print.   In the UK alone, Deloitte has predicted that by the end of 2009 one in every 10 print publications will either have to reduce its publication frequency, go online or close down.  Tech companies have long been responding to this shift in media presentation with a number of E-Readers that make downloaded print, mobile.

Amazon’s Kindle vs the Sony PRS 505 E-Reader

What Apple did so well with the iPhone, was to provide a phone with wireless capabilities that linked people straight to iTunes and their App Store via the very device they would use the media they were selling on.  Buying a new song or app was made an instantaneous, pain-free and simple task.  The same model goes for the Amazon Kindle.  By providing free wireless, users can read and buy publications from the Kindle Store without so much as a second thought let alone a USB cable.
Unlike the Kindle, the Sony E-Reader has no wireless capabilities and to add eBooks a USB connection must be provided between the reader and computer.  In light of Kindle’s wireless capabilities it is a shame that at the very least the Sony does not have Bluetooth.  Although this is far from a major problem, it does mean that your choice of reading material is less timely.  For Sony themselves it may also lose them potential profit from spontaneous on the move purchases.

Whilst the Sony is both lighter and smaller in overall dimension, it can only store 80 average sized books in comparison to 200 on the Kindle.  That said there is the potential to expand its storage by up to 10GB of SD storage in comparison to 4GB for the Kindle.  In the battle of specifications, however, it shouldn’t be forgotten that most people would never normally carry 80 hardbacks with them – at most maybe a book and a paper – so this is no real deal breaker.

The real advantage of the E-Reader is the Sony CONNECT Store where over 160,000 titles of all genres from fiction to business and self-help are available.  The Kindle store in comparison has only 90,000 titles but also publishes top US and international papers and blogs, and enables users to send their own Word documents and pictures to Kindle.  Both provide first chapters free before you buy.

Reading about the two together it is hard to know which one is better.  The Sony is (marginally) lighter and comes complete with access to almost double the number of publications as the Kindle.  I, for one however, can only read one book at once and so the ability of the Sony to store more books just doesn’t seem so important.  For me, with a lifestyle that dictates I am always on the run, it is the wireless capabilities of Amazon’s Kindle that really appeals.  I have long been enjoying the ability to download a track to my phone when I want, and I am sure many would enjoy the same freedom with books.