Sony is expected to introduce a new family of eReader devices to challenge the Amazon Kindle and Barnes & Noble Nook devices next month. In an interview with Bloomberg, Sony Electronics’ vice president of digital reading Phil Lubell said that the new eReaders will offer both software and hardware enhancements, although he wasn’t specific on what exactly the changes are. Lubell said the devices will hit the market ahead of his company’s S1 and S2 Android tablets. AT&T announced yesterday that it would ship the dual-screen S2 to its customers in time for the back-to-school season, and Sony said its tablets will receive a software update later this year with support for the company’s eReader bookstore and software. “Sony appears to be struggling to expand its e-reader business as fast as it had originally planned,” Nobuo Kurahashi, an analyst at Mizuho Financial Group Inc. in Tokyo, told Bloomberg. Sony’s Reader products currently cost between $180 and $300 and the company will need to drop that price in order to compete with Amazon’s $114 Amazon Kindle with Special Offers and Barnes & Noble’s $139 ‘All new NOOK.’
