Will latest Sony Reader spark ebook tipping point?

Sony launched an ebook reader the size of a paperback, with a six-inch screen, in the US last week. The Sony Reader was unveiled alongside a new online e-book shop called Sony Connect, which has inked deals with major publishers (from Penguin to Random House) to provide e-book content.

The moves emulate Apple's iPod and iTunes services – you buy an ebook from Connect and download on to your PC, then transfer it, via a USB link, to the Reader itself. Sony's system will allow an eBook to be transferred to up to six devices.

But Sony's Reader may not have iPod levels of uptake - the high price of the Reader ($350) and uncertainty around digital rights management issues generally, may still produce consumer resistance.

A Sony spokeswoman told me that there are absolutely no plans to launch the Reader in Europe, let alone the UK, and that it might be some time before Sony evaluates the success of the new products in the US before even deciding to give them more global roll-out – if at all.

So, while this latest news has been hailed by some as the beginning of the ebook revolution, I think it's far from likely to create a tipping point for wider acceptance of ebooks.

Sony has, however, delivered solutions to some headaches. The Reader benefits from using screen technology from E-ink Corporation, which has developed a more paper-like reading experience – a real bugbear for many early adopters. Power consumption is also much lower – Sony says the Reader battery will last for up to 7,500 page turns.

But it's digital rights management issues that still remain unresolved, and until they do, the ebook industry is unlikely to take off. Consumers will want to be able to move ebooks around, swapping a book from one device to another – which could open up the way for Napster style peer-to-peer "piracy" to emerge.

There may be some scope for developing DRMs that take into account library loans or time-limited "browsing" of a title, but in general the publishing industry and digital book consumers are at loggerheads. And that isn't going to change soon.