-
your Windows® embedded community
Windows For Devices
your Windows® embedded community
In a March email sent to customers by Plastic Logic CEO Richard Archuleta (and reprinted by Gizmodo), the company said the Que would not ship until "this summer." Apologizing for the delay, the message continued, "we are postponing the first Que proReader shipments ... in order to fine-tune the features and enhance the overall product experience."
Now, Archuleta has emailed customers again, canceling their orders and failing to provide a new ship date, according to a message forwarded to eWEEK yesterday. With Amazon.com's Kindle and Barnes & Noble's Nook both dropping below $200, Plastic Logic's premium price strategy could be backfiring, writer Nicholas Kolakowski suggests.
Archuleta's June 24 email is said to have read, "Weve been working hard to bring the worlds first product based on plastic electronics technology to market, and have decided that delaying the device a bit longer will result in a better product to you, With that in mind, we need to let you know that since your unit will not ship on June 24 as planned, our automated ordering system has automatically cancelled your order."
However, the email added, "We do hope that you will stay on our list of customers interested in knowing about our progress and details of our upcoming product shipment."
Archuleta then insisted that the device will, in fact, eventually see a commercial release: "We continue to be excited about the potential that our thin, light and shatter-proof ProReader will offer to business users everywhere, and hope we can count you among the first to experience this groundbreaking device."
A Plastic Logic spokesperson emailed eWEEK this morning to add, "Plastic Logic has informed pre-order customers they have decided to delay the device a bit longer ... [but] they continue to refine the product, its technology and features and are anxious to get in the marketplace as soon as possible."
Kolakowski cites a The New York Times report earlier this week, in which William J. Lynch, CEO of Barnes & Noble, is quoted as saying "I dont see more than two, maybe three dedicated reading companies in the market for selling e-books. I think you are starting to see a shake-out now."
Dedicated e-readers are also facing strong competition from Apple's iPad (right), more than three million of which have now been sold, according to the Cupertino manufacturer. While the iPad uses a color LCD display rather than E Ink (see below), it has been touted for its e-reading capabilities, and relevant applications are offered for the device by Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and Apple itself.
Background
Plastic Logic's Que was announced with a number of novel features, including not only an 8.5 x 11 inch form factor, but also a 10.7-inch "shatterproof" screen with a resolution of 1264 x 964 pixels. The device is a third of an inch thick, weighs 17 ounces, and includes both WiFi and optional cellular connectivity, the company said.
Said to be aimed at business professionals, the Que was designed to display newspapers, books and periodicals, and can download content either via WiFi or via a cellular modem designed to operate with AT&T's 3G network. Plastic Logic has claimed an online store, "powered by Barnes & Noble," will offer "the most significant collection of business reading available on any e-reader."
Like Amazon's market-leading Kindle, the Que (pictured above and at right) uses an electrophorescent monochrome display sourced from E Ink Corporation. Electronic paper offers a bright, high-contrast, thin, lightweight display technology that remains legible under "any lighting condition" -- much like newsprint. Once an image has been "printed," no power is needed to hold it, reducing energy requirements by 99 percent compared to LCDs, E Ink claims.
Unlike the Kindle and a variety of existing Windows-based e-readers, the Que has an 8.5 x 11-inch form factor, touted by Plastic Logic as the largest available. Measuring 10.7 inches diagonally, the screen has a resolution of 1264 x 964 pixels, according to the company.
The e-reader has a customized user interface, and can read documents in PDF, DOC, DOCX, XLS, XLSX, PPT, PPTX, text, RTF, HTML, JPEG, PNG, BMP, ePub, and eReader formats, according to Plastic Logic.
In addition, the company says, it has teamed with Good Technology to develop email and calendaring software for the device. It's said this will provide un-tethered updates from a variety of popular email services for business professionals, including Microsoft Exchange.
The Que differs from the iPad in that it is not touted as a web browsing device. This is probably because of the low refresh rate provided by E Ink displays, rather than any other underlying technical limitation.
Plastic Logic says that with or without a stylus, users can highlight text, scribble free-form, or use a virtual keyboard to add comments to documents. Built-in search functionality makes it easy to find content that has been loaded onto the system, the company adds.
The Que -- promised in a 4GB configuration touted as holding up to 35,000 documents, or an 8GB configuration that said to hold 75,000 documents -- runs Windows CE, according to Plastic Logic. Also, Marvell has announced that the device uses its Armada 166E, an ARM SoC that integrates E Ink's Visplex display controller.
Plastic Logic's website does not appear to make battery life claims, but the company said last year that the Que's operating time would be "measured in days." As noted earlier, the device is a third of an inch thick and weighs 17 ounces. In addition to its optional cellular modem, the Que proReader includes a USB port, 802.11b/g wireless networking, and Bluetooth 2.0.
In April 2009, Plastic Logic announced an agreement with the Detroit Media Partnership via which its e-reader will be offered as a replacement for home newspaper delivery. At that time, the publisher ended home delivery of Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday editions of the Detroit Free Press and Detroit News, and said it would offer the Que to subscribers for purchase or lease this year.
Further information
According to Plastic Logic, the Que proReader will cost $650 for a 4GB version, or $800 for an 8GB version that also includes a cellular modem. Further information on the Que may be found on the company's web site, here.
Nicholas Kolakowski's eWEEK story citing the latest round of delays for the device may be found here.
