Recent reports suggest that Sony has finally made up its mind to make an exit from the e-book business as it will no longer be manufacturing eReader hardware.
According to reports from the German site Lesen.net, Sony has no plans for a successor to its current Reader model, PRS-T3 and that the device will be the last Sony eReader to be sold until stock runs out. The PRS-T3 was rolled out in 20 countries including Japan, Canada and European states last year.
Weighing 200 grams, the PRS-T3 features a 6-inch E-ink touchscreen display, an optional night light, Wi-Fi and a battery life that lasts for 6 to 8 weeks.
Earlier this year, the Electronics giant had pulled out of selling e-books in the UK, Europe and Australia, pushing its users in the US and Europe to rival Kobo’s e-bookstore. Now, Sony has announced that it will pull out itself completely of the worldwide e-reader market as it is soon going to shut down production in Japan as well. The company however confirmed it’ll continue producing specialist business readers that use its ‘digital paper’ system.
Although Sony did not give any exact reason for the closure, it’s quite evident that rise of smartphones, tablets and phablets has badly affected the company’s e-bookstore ambitions. Also, competing with Amazon’s cheaper Kindle range of devices, which currently holds for 90 percent of the UK e-reader market, is said to have led to the device’s demise.
Sony, earlier this year, sold its Vaio PC business division as it continues to go through a rough restructuring period.
