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Meet Sharp's first two e-book readers. The Android-based devices will be be sold under
the Galapagos brand-name, the model on the right has a 5.5-inch screen and the one on
the left a 10-inch screen.
Sharp plans to launch an e-book store in Japan in December to coincide with the launch and
hopes to sell a million units within their first year on sale. Talks with Verizon Wireless
mean the US is likely to be the second place to see them, sometime in 2011.
Sharp says they're meant to compete with products like Amazon's Kindle and the Sony's Reader,
but thanks to their bright, colorful LCD screens and shiny cases, they're sure to draw comparisons
with tablet PCs like Apple's iPad and Samsung's Galaxy Tab.
Future plans call for the addition of wider e-commerce services, music, video and a Web
browser, which could further distance them from the e-book market. But unlike tablet
PCs they won't necessarily be able to run Android software of the user's choice.
Price could do a lot to define how consumers categorize them, but Sharp wouldn't disclose
that on Monday. Pricing and full technical details will come closer to the launch.
The Japanese models will play books in the XMDF format, which was developed by Sharp
and largely confined to Japan. It offers features such as the ability to change font sizes without
altering the content and picture layout on the page, and to embed video on the page.
Sharp said it will later add support for the ePub format, used by Barnes and Noble and
Sony in their e-readers. It will also get other document formats including HTML, the
basic language of the text Internet, and Adobe's PDF.
In Tokyo this is Martyn Williams, IDG News Service.