Skip to main content

Sony’s $1,100 Digital Paper Has Found a New Home: in HR

When sony-digitalpaper-dpt-s1Sony’s expensive Digital Paper writing slate launched in the US last month I knew that its $1,100 price tag and limited feature set would make it hard to find buyers, but it looks like Sony DPT-S1 has found a home where money is rarely a problem: Hollywood.

Sony put out a press release today, announcing a new deal with Ease Entertainment. This firm handles accounting and payroll for studios and other entertainment companies, and they think the Sony Digital Paper is a great idea.

"We are committed to taking what is still a 'paper and file box' industry and moving it into the current generation of tools, a key part of which is Sony’s Digital Paper," said Michael Rose, Chairman and CEO of Ease Entertainment. "The combination of our technologies will substantially streamline and improve the onboarding process, which will ultimately lead to reduced production costs. The uses in and around a shooting set, within production offices and at the corporate and legal level, are countless: enhanced regulatory compliance, fewer errors, reduced environmental impact and an increased level of efficiency."

SonySoftKB-130516I really have to wonder about the CEO of an accounting company thinking that the Digital Paper is a good value.

The Sony Digital Paper DPT-S1 is based on a 13.3″ plastic-backed E-ink screen and comes with a dual-mode touchscreen, stylus, Wifi, 2.8GB Flash storage, and is limited to only letting users read and edit with PDFs.

At $1,100, the Digital Paper does not present a good cost:benefit ratio- not compared to tablets. You could get two $500 tablets for the same cost and show a much higher benefit from the many additional features and functions on the tablets that the Digital paper lacks.

With that in mind, I wonder just how many devices Ease bought and at what discount. Equipping all of their staff would leave a huge crater where their IT budget used to be, so I bet they only bought a handful of the writing slates.

Similar Articles


Comments


M Singh April 23, 2014 um 2:34 am

It is now available on Amazon for $1730 +

I hope it will reach a realistic price soon

Nate Hoffelder May 13, 2014 um 1:51 pm

Ouch! Thanks for the tip!


Anne-Sophie April 24, 2014 um 11:24 am

I’m a hobby musician and I can tell you that this device would be great to read music. I wonder if Sony have been trying to get deals with leading symphony orchestras. As a choir singer I would swap my heavy black folder with multiple scores ready to fall out for this device any day… if it was at least $800 cheaper.


Sony's 13.3" Digital Paper Writing Slate Gets a $400 Price Cut – Now Costs Only $1,350 – The Digital Reader May 13, 2014 um 5:00 pm

[…] its $1,100 price tag. And when Sony first started selling the device on Amazon in late April (Thanks, M Singh!) for $1,750, it was even further out of […]


Sid June 7, 2014 um 6:58 pm

Hi

I was wondering if there are two devices. There seems to be a Japanese version (with a Japanese interface) and a English version (which as an English interface). Does any anyone know if this is correct. I would love to purchase this item with an English interface only. I fear those devices currently available (on Amazon and E bay) are the Japanese versions. I would love some clarification on this issue

thanks

Nate Hoffelder June 7, 2014 um 11:50 pm

So far as I know there is one device, two firmwares.

Sid June 8, 2014 um 3:17 am

thanks Nate

Sid June 8, 2014 um 3:28 am

Would the Japanese version be able to read English PDFs?

Nate Hoffelder June 8, 2014 um 3:44 pm

I would think so, but there’s a chance that Sony may have done something to render the English PDFs incompatible. It sounds crazy, but that doesn’t make it impossible.


Write a Comment