Sony plans $199 U.S. e-reader, takes on Amazon

LOS ANGELES, USA: Sony Corp will begin selling this month the cheapest digital book reader for the United States, taking rival Amazon.com Inc head-on in the small but fast-growing market for electronic readers.

Sony plans to start selling its 5-inch-screen Pocket Reader at $199 - which it called a breakthrough price - and a larger touchscreen reader for $299, through nationwide retail outlets such as Wal-Mart and Best Buy.

To drive initial demand, the company plans also to reduce the price it charges for downloads of best-sellers and new releases to $9.99 from $11.99, putting prices in line with Amazon.com's.

"Achieving the $199 price point, we believe, expands the market dramatically," Steve Haber, president of Sony's Digital Reading division, told Reuters.

People who had been hesitant about the price of a digital reader may now jump in, he added.

Haber expects the market for e-readers to exceed 2 million units this year in the United States.