Sony (SNE), Always Late And Always A Loser, Gets Into E-Reader Market

Sony (SNE) has had one hit product in the thirty years since it launched the Walkman. That product was the PlayStation 2. Microsoft (MSFT) and Nintendo bull-dozed Sony out of its position as the leader in game consoles and the PS3 has never come close to matching the success of its predecessor.

Sony today announced that it would enter the e-reader business, a part of the consumer electronics industry that is dominated by the Amazon (AMZN) Kindle which was originally released in early November of last year. Sony has given itself the chance to be tardy to a market dominated by the largest online retail outlet in the world, a website that was founded as a place to sell books online.

The Wall Street Journal reports that the new Sony product will be offered at two price points–one at $199 and one at $299, slighly below the prices of some competing products, but the devices will not be wireless which will put them at a disadvantage to other e-book readers.

Sony’s biggest challenge may be that it cannot match the traffic that Amazon has for its products. The Kindle is featured on Amazon’s home page as is its Kindle e-book store. Accordng to Comscore,  the Amazon sites are the ninth most visited sites in the US with over 63 million unique visitors in June.

Sony also finds itself in competition with Barnes & Noble (BKS) which launched its own e-book reader last month. The largest bricks-and-mortar bookstore chain in America is desperate to improve its business which is being increasingly undermined by the move of consumers to digital content.

Sony’s products do not appear to have any advantage in features, price, or the amount of content they can offer the consumer. That leaves little or no reason for e-book customers to choose its devices.

Douglas A. McIntyre