Sony Reader Touch Edition Fills a Niche

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With Sony Readers, you use your computer and the included USB cable to download and transfer books from Sony's eBook Store. The online bazaar has recently been revamped to let you download free books from Google's (GOOG) catalog of 1 million tomes. There's also a handy library-finder function that will point you to any in your area that offer free, 21-day digital book rentals for use on the Sony devices.

Memory Card Slots

Buyers who are more tech-savvy will love Sony's support of multiple e-book formats, including Adobe (ADBE) PDFs, ePub, TXT, and RTF. Amazon's Kindle and Kindle 2 have their own proprietary format; only the large, 10-inch-screen Kindle DX includes native PDF support. And you can rotate the Sony screen into a landscape format—something you can do only with the Kindle DX.

Sony's Readers can play MP3- and AAC-formatted non-DRM music files. The Kindle offers a stereo jack for this, too, but I like the fact that Sony devices include slots for SD and Memory Stick Pro Duo cards. That way you can simply download music files to the cards rather than walk through the slightly more cumbersome and confusing method Amazon requires. Another bonus: The memory card slots can serve as added memory if for some reason you download more than the 1,500 or so books capped by the internal memory.

I've been using the Kindle 2 for several months now, and love the easy ability with the Sprint (S) Whispernet built-in wireless to download a new book almost anywhere in the U.S. The biggest downside to the Touch Edition is that it doesn't offer the same amount of convenience or spontaneity for finding new authors. Amazon also trumps Sony with its recommendation engine that delivers potential books you might like based on what you previously purchased or browsed in its online bookstore.

The Reader Daily Edition, set for release in December, will include built-in wireless from AT&T (T) (with the ability to swap out SIM cards for other 3G carriers around the globe) and likely address these failings. I think, over time, wireless will become standard on all digital readers.

But the cheaper, non-wireless Touch Edition currently fills a void that makes it a valuable part of the Sony family.

Edwards is a correspondent in BusinessWeek's Silicon Valley bureau.

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