French book news site ActuaLitté reports (in French) that Sony’s PRS T1 149-Euro touchscreen e-reader has sold over 500,000 units in Europe—reportedly not far behind the sales of Amazon’s Kindle.
It’s a little tricky to make sense of the Google-translated text, but ActuaLitté seems to report that the Sony’s biggest problem is the lack of a library integrated into the device. The existing store is slow, but Sony says it is seeking a partner who can meet Sony’s performance demands. Meanwhile, competitor Kobo is invading Europe, and a possible Barnes & Noble European expansion could be on the horizon.
Although Sony has languished in the competition, it is a partner with Pottermore, and is offered in a special bundle with the Potter e-books. And it is reportedly one of the favorite e-readers in European digital library experiments. So while Sony may be largely ignored on the American side of the pond, it might have a better chance of survival in Europe, at least for a while.
(Found via E-Reader Info.)
I have a PRS-T1 and of the ereaders I have used I find it by far the best hardware device, admittedly library and title availability can make it pretty frustrating when trying to purchase eBooks, but I find the Kobo store is very well stocked and the prices are reasonable but in no way comparable to Amazon’s Kindle Store.