There has been a torrent of new readers pouring through my RSS reader over the last week. The reason is that the Frankfurt book fair is on at the moment.
In summary then. There’s one called the txtr from a German company which looks fairly unremarkable from what I can see. A company called AUO has come up with a flexible e-ink display and also the world’s largest e-ink display at 20″. We’ve known about the Plastic Logic reader for a while but now it finally has a name: the Proreader. Ectaco are adding to their Jetbook range with a Jetbook lite which is likely to retail at $150 and uses AA batteries. There are a couple of really interesting dual readers as well in the Alex and the Entourage. The Alex interestingly is running Google’s mobile OS Android. Also, Barnes and Noble have finally come up with their Kindle rival in the Nook which is a colour e-ink reader.
Like you, I go through all the RSS feeds and they have been coming in thick and fast for months. Yet when I take my e-reader anywhere I’m asked what it is! I saw no e-readers on publishing colleagues while at Frankfurt. Many admitted they didn’t own one and some had no intention of getting one. When I was on the train or in a cafe after the Fair I was constantly being asked what I was reading from (ya, hallo, entschuldigen, was IST das!!) Go into a department store, you won’t see e-readers prominently displayed – if at all. I went into the Sony store at Singapore Airport a couple of weeks ago – not an e-reader in sight. Big German department stores. Nichts! We, in the know, know where to buy them locally (either distributors, manufacturers or Aust booksellers reselling them) and of course the internet went into a short frenzy when Amazon announced they would start shipping The Kindle here. Regardless of what e-reader you have, rights will remain problematic for the foreseeable future. I registered with a US address in the first place because we all don’t just want open market content – we want new releases as well! Just because there are ereaders being produced, doesn’t mean its going to enhance the offer. Yet.