Panasonic to launch e-book/tablet hybrid in Japan

Thanks to Panasonic, consumers in Japan will be getting an e-book reader/tablet hybrid that has been specially designed for the Japanese market in mind. The e-book/tablet hybrid will be getting its source of e-books from Rakuten, which is a leading online shopping mall operator in Japan, who in turn will be distributing e-books from booklista Co., which is a joint venture established by Sony and Toppan Printing Co.

In what appears to be a pretty neat tie-up with Rakuten’s core competency, customers who purchase e-books will be given bonus points, which in return can be redeemed while shopping for items on Rakuten’s marketplace.

The e-book/tablet hybrid is said to be running on Android’s Froyo 2.2 with a 7-inch LCD touch screen sporting a 1,024×600 resolution, while being powered by a dual-core CPU (specs still unknown at this point), a camera (no mention of megapixels), a microSDHC slot, and 16 apps pre-installed (a browser, mail client, Adobe reader, etc.) as well as WiFi connectivity.

The price of the device has yet to be announced, and Panasonic is looking to launch the e-book/tablet hybrid as early as next month.