Sony's Librie was the first mass market e-ink eReaders released. The Librie (EBR-1000EP) debuted in 2005 for the Japanese market, with no English language support. The Librie was the result of a three-year collaboration between Sony, Philips, Toppan printing and E Ink Corporation.
Its weight (10.5 ounces, a bit heavy by today's standards for the size) was designed to weigh as much as a typical paperback for one handed reading. Like Amazon's popular Kindle which followed it, the Librie had a tiny QWERTY keyboard under the display, a design Sony has since abandoned on all subsequent ebook readers.
As the first device in the e-ink eReader category, the Librie certainly had problems. The buttons were criticized as being unresponsive, and the early e-ink screen was longer and harsher than more recent models. Unlike modern eReaders which use dedicated, integrated rechargeable batteries, the Librie used four AAA batteries. The unit came with a truly meager 10 MB of onboard memory, but this could be easily augmented by adding a Sony Memory Stick Pro.
The Librie also had primitive audio and mp3 support, through a monoaural speaker or headphone jack.
The Librie was roundly criticized when it came out because of draconian DRM (digital rights management) Sony imposed. Books from the primary content provider Broad Band eBook (BBeB) were set to expire and become unreadable 60 days after downloading. In fact, most analysts believe the Librie failed mainly due to its limited availability and lack of content.
Sony has gone on to launch three generations of e-ink eReaders after the Librie, which acted as a sort of test run in Japan; despite its flaws, the current industry owes much to this pioneer ebook reader.
Connecting: Like most early eReaders, the Sony Librie had no wireless connectivity, and relied on a USB 2.0 cable for connecting to a computer and transferring ebooks.
Accessories: We're unaware of the accessories released for the Librie.
Price: Some non-Japanese personally imported Libries and manually installed English software, and these versions cost around $420.
This first mass market e-ink reader in 2005 paved the way, but had many flaws and was roundly criticized at the time.
eBook Reader Basics