In some Japanese homes, the thump of the morning paper on the doorstep may soon be replaced by automatic daily downloads to a tablet computer. And U.S. homes may not be far behind.
Sharp on Monday announced the December launch in Japan of Galapagos, a media cloud system that will offer a selection of 30,000 books, magazines and newspapers for the two Android-based readers it announced in July, with a fee-based “Automatic Scheduled Delivery Service” for the latest editions of newspapers and magazines. The service also provides free trial versions of recommended e-book content that can then be easily purchased.
“You could say Galapagos is a suggestion of the shape of things to come,” said Charles King, principal analyst at Pund-IT.
Odd Name
Galapagos is an odd choice of monikers since, in addition to not rolling easily off the tongue like iPad or nook, the term has been used derogatorily in the high-tech world to describe Japanese technology that is impressive at home but unseen in other parts of the world, like the unique animals on the Pacific archipelago visited by Charles Darwin in 1835.
“Galapagos was chosen as the name for Sharp’s cloud-based media service business as a symbol of the ‘evolution’ of services and terminal devices that constantly bring fresh, new experiences to the user,” Sharp said. “The observations Darwin made while on the islands played a key role in the formulation of his theory of evolution.”
Using the name may be a way for Sharp to thumb its nose at critics who say Japanese technology can’t drive evolution in other markets.
The two Wi-Fi-equipped devices come with a 5.5-inch (for the “mobile type”) or 10.8-inch (for the “home-style”) liquid-crystal displays at 1024×800 pixels or 1366×800 pixels, respectively. Sharp hasn’t announced pricing for the two units or which version of Android they will run. It…