Plastic Logic color e-reader on track for spring?
updated 08:00 am EDT, Fri October 9, 2009
Barnes & Noble may be 1st with color e-books
Barnes & Noble spokesman Daniel Joresson at CTIA appears to have confirmed a timeframe in a video (available below) for what's likely the first color e-book reader available in the US. The Plastic Logic device would be smaller than the 8.5x11-inch large model proposed early on and would have just a paperback-sized display. However, it would have its own direct access to Barnes & Noble's bookstore and would be ready by spring 2010, or considerably earlier than an Amazon Kindle with color or most other rivals.
Plastic Logic itself hasn't either confirmed or denied the specific news but has said it plans to be first with a reasonably large color e-book reader and that it will follow the magazine-sized grayscale reader. Other details haven't been discussed, but as the first model will have AT&T-based 3G for downloading books, that feature is more likely to continue in a second device.
The launch wouldn't represent the first publicly available color e-book reader as the Fujitsu FLEPia already offers an early form of technology. However, it would be the first outside of Japan and likely the first to be a more explicitly mainstream product rather than a niche or early adopter offering. [via SlashGear]
Fresh-Faced Recruit
Joined: Apr 2003
Zzzzzzzzzz....
Color? Who cares? Like I want to read a bunch of colored text. I owned an eReader but it sucked. Now I use Stanza on my iPod touch and I'm perfectly satisfied. I spend an hour on the train twice a day and it fills the time perfectly. If I'm going to spend hours at a time reading, I probably don't need portability so a regular old dead tree will suffice. I think Jobs was right, the eReader market is never going to be very big.