Sony Comes After Kindle with a Wireless, Touch-Screen Device

As expected, Sony Electronics unveiled a wireless, touch-screen electronic reading device on Tuesday, dubbed the Daily Edition, that it plans to sell starting in December in time for the holiday season.

The $399 device, which will have a seven-inch screen, will help the company catch up with Amazon’s Kindle, which has been wireless since its first version was introduced in 2007. The Kindle, which does not have a touch screen, is now priced at $299. A larger edition, the Kindle DX, has a 9.7-inch screen, which makes it easier to read newspapers and magazines and costs $489. Steve Haber, president of Sony’s Digital Reading Business Division, said that there would be newspapers and magazines available on the Daily Edition when it went on sale in December, but declined to discuss current negotiations.

The company also announced a partnership with the New York Public Library to make the close to 29,000 electronic titles that the library currently has available on all Sony Readers, which now include the Reader Pocket Edition and Reader Touch Edition, now on sale for $199 and $299 respectively.

Borrowers will be able to download a digital library book onto their readers. The electronic editions, which are protected from easy copying, would expire in 21 days from the device or computer. Sony users may also download copies of public domain books scanned from the New York Public Library by Google.

Paul LeClerc, president of the New York Public Library, said the library was slowly expanding its digital collection. Of the some 29,000 titles, he said the bulk were new, popular releases.