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Sony Discontinued the Sony Reader in the US

sony-prs-t3-release[1]The Sony Reader PRS-T2 is no longer available on the US Sony Style website, and since Sony has confirmed that the new PRS-t3 will not be released in the US it appears that Sony has officially abandoned the US ereader market this week. 

A reader tipped me to the new change to the Sony Style website. (Thanks, Marie!) We are both more than a little baffled as to why Sony would choose to not sell any ereader in the US, but that’s Sony for you.

Update: It looks like this story may have been premature. The Sony Reader has been alternating between available and "not available" for a few days now. In my defense, the T2 is not carried by Walmart, Best Buy, or Amazon, so it was safe to conclude that it had been removed from the market.

They have long been telegraphing that they were more interested in selling ebooks on their smartphones and tablets. For example, they released basically the same ereader for 3 years running while at the same time Amazon, Kobo, Pocketbook, Bookeen, and everyone else released new and better ereaders every year.

And Sony has also added limited support for Epub3 to their reading apps (first Android and then iOS) but not to the Sony Reader.

At this point I think it is safe to say that if Sony weren’t selling ebooks on their smartphones they would probably have abandoned the ebook market entirely.

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Comments


Nathan October 5, 2013 um 9:47 am

The white one is still available. And it seems to change from day to day. Sometimes the black is gone for a couple of days then it comes back again. I wouldn’t be surprised if they all disappear and don’t come back though. It’s clear Sony doesn’t care much about ebook readers in the US anymore.

Bubba October 5, 2013 um 3:27 pm

Not sure it’s that they don’t care, seems like they’re waving the white flag and conceding the US market to Amazon, for now, possibly to focus on other markets. Maybe down the road Sony will release something that US retailers will want to sell and US market will compare favorably to whatever Amazon has/will have. But clearly that time isn’t now and they know it.


Keishon October 5, 2013 um 9:48 am

I’m not baffled by their not selling it in the US. They offered no substantial changes to the ereader, they don’t seem too interested in competing with other ereaders on the market and their prices continue to be what-the-hell- expensive. Mobile sounds like the way to go for them. And I used to own their ereaders – three of them of which the 950 was the best one. My three cents.


Jason October 5, 2013 um 11:55 am

An obvious question to me is why the T3 is available in Canada, a smaller market and all that. Not that I will buy one anyways.

Nate Hoffelder October 6, 2013 um 10:46 pm

From what I can tell Sony Canada is a separate division. I guess they think they can sell enough ereaders in Canada to make it worth importing. And they do have a decent market share in Canada (20% or more), so I guess it makes some sense.


Marie October 5, 2013 um 12:58 pm

Nate, I might have spoken too soon. Right now, the red one is "No Longer Available," but the black one is again "In Stock," and as Nathan said, the white version appears to be in stock as well. To me, there’s a big difference between "Out of Stock" and "No Longer Available," the latter indicating something final and permanent. My apologies for a tip that wasn’t wholly accurate — but hopefully you’ll agree with me that Sony’s use of "No Longer Available" was misleading.


FD October 6, 2013 um 6:58 am

What 'news' 🙂 Less than u rumour. Or s t a r t s a rumour.

Anyway, the T2 was the one i’d buy – E-ink and WiFi ! And then less than 90 euros in an occasional discount


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