sonyreaderWith the e-readers and tablets and mobile devices galore, who would ever think that a PDF reader would out price them all?

The eBook Reader has an interesting post up about the Sony DPT-S1 PDF reader. It is showcased as a tool for professionals to read PDF files. That’s it. Nate over at The Digital Reader wrote about the Sony reader coming to the United States back in March.

So, how do you get your hands on one?

If you are ready to spend more than $1,000, you can buy one on Amazon for $1,300. EBay also has completed prices ranging between $1,400 and $1,600. The only current reseller in the U.S. is Worldox and is not available to the average consumer.

Here’s the thing, these items have sold. Completed listings on eBay show 13 of these readers (mostly the Japanese version) selling for more than $1,400 each.

So what makes this reader so intriguing? When dealing with cloud-based storage, consumers can access thousands of documents. It could be a tool for lawyers, researchers or government officials. Consider the thousands of pieces of paper that are created – and perhaps even now eliminated – by those professionals that need access to mountains of data.

It also allows users to create sticky notes and annotate documents.

The price isn’t pretty, but clearly there are people out there who have found a need for this product. But what makes this so different from a Microsoft Surface or another tablet with PDF-reading capabilities? Is it the 13.3-inch screen? The light weight? The large amount of internal and external storage? All of it?

2 COMMENTS

  1. I’ve been waiting years for this device, figuring it’d be perfect for textbooks and manuals. Restricted release aside, without ePub support there’s just no way I can begin to justify that price tag. Hopefully Sony (or someone else) gets it “right” in the near future…

    (Slightly misleading headline, by the way. “Thousands of dollars” > $1,999.99)

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