Panasonic enters the eBook market with the Words Gear electronic book reader. The company showed a prototype of the color screen eBook back in July 2005 the first time.

The Panasonic Words Gear features a 5.6 inch screen with SVGA (1024x768px) resolution. The size of the book reader is 105×152×28.4 (most it is thin section 18.5) mm. The weight is 325g.

Turning pages is done by touching an E shaped touch panel on the casing. Books can be uploaded via SD cards.
Sony has launched their eBook 'Sony Reader' in the US. Sony introduced it back at the CES 2006. The Sony eBook PRS-500 ships on October 31st from SonyStyle. Borders is supposed to sell the Reader too.
More details in this Panasonic press-release (Japanese).