E-reader Roundup At The 2010 CES

(PhysOrg.com) -- At the 2010 Las Vegas CES, many manufactures introduced their e-reader products in the hope to spark consumer interest in the e-book market. 2010 is going to prove to be an innovative year for e-book readers as color technology is going to play an important part in e-book readers this year.

Two of the most impressive electronic ink devices are the 10.5-inch Que proReader by Plastic Logic and 11.5 inch Skiff Reader; both touch screen devices are 3G enabled. The Que proReader is marketing their device as a replacement to bundles of business papers and support for truVue PDF files, e mail, MS Office docs, and Outlook calendar support. The Skiff Reader is targeting consumers with published content (books and publications) and multi-media.

The 2010 CES was littered with hybrids and new screen technology looking to be more competitive with Amazon's Kindle and Barnes & Noble's Nook. With any luck the competition should heat up later this year and drive down the price of first generation e-readers.

Here's a summary of a few e-readers shown at the 2010 Las Vegas CES.

• Bookeen Orizon touchscreen e-reader is equipped with a 6-inch touchscreen display, built-in WiFi, Bluetooth, ePub support, and an accelerometer for portrait or landscape reading; will retail for about $250. No release date yet.

• Iriver Story e-reader measures 0.36-inch thick and incorporates a 6-inch e-ink display, an integrated MP3 player, 2GB of internal memory, an SD expansion slot, USB 2.0 connectivity and is WiFi enabled.

• Jinke SiPix panel e-reader uses SiPix panels for the A6 and A9 readers. Both the 6 and 9 inch devices have 16 levels of grayscale, WiFi a/b/g, and optional 3G. Supports formats FB2, EPUB, PDF, most image formats, and MP3. The 6-inch (600 x 800) device has 2GB of storage, an SD slot, and an accelerometer. The 9-inch (1024 x 768) device has up to 4GB storage. The A6 retails for $275 and the A9 for $330; both should be available in March.

• Interead COOL-ER e-readers - 3G enabled (AT&T) and WiFi capable. Bandwidth deals with AT&T will support NewspaperDirect service with access to over 1,300 newspapers and magazines. Scheduled to be released mid-2010, no retail price is available yet.

• Samsung E6 and E10 e-book readers - Comes in 6 and 10 inch touchscreen model and will use Google has the content provider. Both models have a QWERTY keyboard and wireless but no 3G. Both the E6 and E10 feature on-screen handwriting capabilities, Bluetooth 2.0, and 802.11b/g WiFi. The 6-inch model will retail for$399, while the 10 inch will sell for $699. Both will be available in early 2010.

• Blio e-reader software will support PC and Mac. The Blio software lets you read digital content in a whole new way. Bilo software will also preserve the traditional book or magazine format by keeping its layout, fonts, and images while also letting you experience digital interactivity.

To sum up we can see that in 2010 the e-reader market is going to extend beyond basic e-books and include newspapers and magazines augmented with audio and full-color animations, video, and imagery. This will force manufactures like Amazon (Kindle) and Sony (Reader) to go beyond the monochrome E-Ink devices they have today and produce e-readers that will be competitive with the new technology of today and beyond.

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