Sony has been selling e-book devices since 2003. The predecessor of the Sony Portable Reader, the Sony Librie, has been sold only in Japan and was the first E-Ink enabled e-book device at that time. The Librie failed to be successful mainly due to its limited availability and to lack of content. In January 2006, Sony surprised the tech community when they announced during the CES in Las Vegas the upcoming launch of the Sony Portable Reader later that year.
From: MobileRead wiki
