NEW YORK — Three weeks after the release of Amazon.com's Kindle 2, Sony Corp. -- the first major company to introduce an electronic book device, the Sony Reader -- said it would offer customers half a million public domain books that have been optimized by Google Inc.
These books, which will join the 100,000 or so available for purchase at the Sony bookstore and other sites, will be free and searchable by title, author and topic.
"We have focused our efforts on offering an open platform and making it easy to find as much content as possible -- from our store or others -- whether that content is purchased, borrowed or free," said Steve Haber, president of the digital reading business division at Sony Electronics.
For several months now, Sony has been under pressure to respond to the success of the Kindle, which has taken the e-book market by storm. If this was the company's much-awaited return volley, the news appeared to fall short of the publishing industry's expectations.
Part of the Kindle's appeal is that it is wireless, using what Amazon calls "whisper" technology allowing users to download books in about 30 seconds. Users can buy the Kindle only from the online bookseller.
And yet, for Sony users, the process can be agonizingly slow. Users of the Reader device must plug it into a computer and log onto a site that sells books in the e-format. It takes minutes for a title to download, after which it must be dragged and dropped into the plugged-in device.
Technophiles and readers have expected Sony to go wireless. But rather than announcing a wireless technology for the Reader, Haber instead trumpeted the broad library of content that would be made possible by the Google deal.
"We don't think it's right that you can only get content from one retailer," Haber said. He did not identify the Kindle by name, but the implication was clear: Sony has decided to concentrate on a model in which sales are driven by an e-book device that offers access to the widest available selection of content from the most sources.
Although Sony's televisions and other consumer electronics have long been status symbols, the company has lost much of the e-book heat to the upstart Kindle. When Amazon unveiled the Kindle 2 last month, the event was the publishing industry's version of a celebrity news conference, with standing room only for hundreds of journalists and heads of publishing houses.
