Panasonic is prepping an Android 2.2-powered e-book reader/tablet hybrid [JP] that’s specifically designed for the Japanese market. The device will offer e-books through a store set up by Rakuten, the country’s biggest e-commerce company, with the initial line-up including a total of at least 10,000 titles.
Panasonic says that owners of the device can redeem bonus points they collect through purchasing e-books when buying other items on Rakuten’s marketplace (for example, clothes or food). Rakuten plans to open their e-book store to owners of the Sony e-book reader in the future, too.
The new Panasonic device has a 7-inch LCD touchscreen (1,024×600 resolution), a dual-core CPU (specs TBD), Wi-Fi, a camera (specs TBD), a microSDHC slot, and 16 apps pre-installed (a browser, mail client, Adobe reader, etc.).
Panasonic plans to start rolling out the device in Japan as early as next month (the price is yet to be fixed). In Japan, it will compete with the Sharp Galapagos Android e-book reader.
Our friends from Diginfonews in Tokyo went out and shot this video of the device (it’s in English):