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Sony confirmed Dec. 22 that its Sony Reader Daily Edition will arrive in time for Christmas morning.
Consumers who pre-ordered on SonyStyle.com through Dec. 20 should begin receiving their e-readers “within the next 48 hours, in time for the holidays,” the company confirmed.
“We’re thrilled to fulfill initial orders of the Sony Reader Daily Edition for the holidays given the high demand,” Steve Haber, Sony Digital Reading president, said in a statement. “We now have the most comprehensive family of devices on the market, the greatest access to free and affordable eBooks through the Reader Store and our affiliated ecosystem, and now round out our Reader offering with a wireless device that lets consumers purchase and download daily content on the go.”
Sony introduced the Daily Edition, its first e-reader to offer 3G connectivity, in August. It features a 7-inch-wide touch screen, 16 levels of grayscale contrast and can hold 1,000 standard e-books – even before its memory-expansion slots are put to use. Its 3G connectivity is provided by the AT&T network.
In struggling to meet holiday demand for e-readers, Sony has hardly been alone. Barnes & Noble got in on the e-reader action with the introduction of the Nook, positioned as a competitor to Amazon’s popular Kindle, but was quickly overwhelmed by orders. The bookseller announced in November that orders received after Nov. 20 wouldn’t arrive until the week of Jan. 4, 2010.
On Dec. 19, the Consumerist blog reported that a Nook customer received an e-mail from Barnes & Noble stating that, should Nook e-readers ordered for a Dec. 24 delivery not arrive on time, customers will be compensated with a $100 Barnes & Nobile online gift certificate.
Amazon.com, however, the leader of the e-reader market, has its holiday ducks in a row and is delighted to say so. On Dec. 22 the company issued a press announcement saying it’s offering free two-day shipping on Dec. 22 for the $259 Kindle, as well as free one-day shipping on Dec. 23.
“It’s easy to get busy during the holidays, so we’ve decided to make it easy even for procrastinators to order Kindle, the #1 most wished for gift on Amazon, and get it delivered for free and in time for Christmas,” Ian Freed, vice president, Amazon Kindle, said in the announcement. “With Kindle, you can give the gift of choosing over 390,000 books and more than 100 top newspapers and magazines from around the world and begin reading in less than 60 seconds.”
Amazon shared in the same statement that the Kindle had recently broken another sales record with its “best sales day in the history of Kindle.” It didn’t, however, offer what that sales number was.
In a Dec. 1 research note, Sandeep Aggarwal, an analyst with advisory group Collins Stewart, estimated that Amazon.com will sell as many as 550,000 Kindle e-readers in 2009, for a Kindle-related 2009 revenue of $301.4 million.