Come on in, Sharp. The water's fine -- if you fancy piranhas.
Sharp is entering the crowded e-book market, introducing an e-reader that it hopes to introduce in Japan later this year. It's already in talks with Verizon (NYSE: VZ) for a stateside rollout shortly after that.
This, naturally, is a lousy time to break in an e-book reader. Amazon.com (Nasdaq: AMZN), Sony (NYSE: SNE), and Barnes & Noble (NYSE: BKS) have all kicked in with aggressive price cuts in recent weeks, dropping the price of e-book gadgetry to as little as $149.
Sharp would also seem to be diminishing its chances by breaking in a new proprietary publishing format.
You're probably shaking your head like an oscillating fan on high speed, but there's a twist: Sharp's new reader doesn't look like any of the e-Ink gizmos on the market. It's actually more in the mold of Apple's (Nasdaq: AAPL) iPad, available in two different sizes, but with the same touchscreen tablet form factor as Apple's device that sold 3.3 million units during the last three months.
Now taking on one Apple may be seen as even more fruitless than taking on three entrenched giants playing sticker price limbo, but Sharp has a plan to compensate for its unfashionably late arrival. Sharp's updated XMDF platform takes text and images one step further by incorporating embedded video and audio.
Pricing will be the key, here. It may be treated to a hometown hero reception in Japan, but if it's able to slip in at a price that is markedly lower than the iPad it may step in as a stateside tweener. Whether it's seen as a poor man's iPad or a rich man's e-reader, it will have to price itself ambitiously if it wants to differentiate itself -- favorably -- from the multifaceted iPad.
Is that where Verizon steps in? Can wireless data contracts subsidize the price tag, or are customers smart enough to work the math and turn away like they did with "free" netbooks? If successful, isn't Apple just as likely to strike a similar deal with AT&T (NYSE: T) for its iPad -- instead of the current non-subsidized month-to-month deal, where the 3G model of the iPad is actually more expensive than that non-3G unit?
This battle is about to get even more interesting. Start taking notes, Amazon.
Does Sharp stand a chance in this crowded niche? Share your thoughts in the comments box below.
