Sony will launch an electronic book store on the Internet and start selling a device that displays e-books purchased from the store October 1, after missing an earlier unveiling in the Spring due to technical reasons, a Reuters report said.
The Reuters report said the Sony Connect book store will carry about 10,000 books from the top six publishers, including News Corp.'s HarperCollins and CBS's Simon & Schuster.
The launch of the store coincides with the official debut of its highly anticipated electronics book reader, which reviewers have said mimic the quality of regular paper, the Reuters report said.
The 'Sony Reader Portable Reader' system will sell for about $350. For a limited period, new Connect customers will receive a $50 credit to buy books from the service, the report said.
Sony's latest generation reader, announced in North America at the Consumer Electronics Show in January, garnered attention for the electronic ink technology it employs made by E Ink of Cambridge, Massachusetts. It uses new technology that allows digital text and graphics to be displayed without power-hungry back-lit screens, the report said.
Much like regular paper, the Sony Reader screen is not back-lit and requires a light source in the room to view the page, the report further said.