Sharp Markets New “Galapagos” Tablets

Japan’s Sharp Corp. will launch an e-bookstore service in December with two new “Galapagos” tablet readers.

“Sharp is a company that always wants to be the first to be second in a growing market, comments Francis Hamit of Brass Cannon Books.” They have the brand name and financial resources to prevail. Look for the initial U.S.A price to be south of $100.00. Just in time for Christmas and the ‘stocking stuffer’ market. It will be interesting to see which e-book distributors they hook up with. “

Sharp’s service will expand to movies, games and music early next year.

[Thanks to Francis Hamit for the story.]

Nick Hornby Not Impressed by E-readers

Nick Hornby

Nick Hornby is not an early adopter, going by what he has to say about e-readers in the Sunday Times Online:

Attempting to sell people something for £400 that merely enables them to read something that they won’t buy at one hundredth of the price seems to me a thankless task. (A member of staff at Borders told me that he had attempted to persuade a young and famous comedian to buy an iLiad last week. He seemed interested, until he was told the price, at which point he swore loudly and walked away. So at the moment, they are priced too high for millionaire showbusiness entertainers.)

So it seems iLiad is still a Turkey reference.

[Thanks to John Mansfield for the link.]