Jan 25, 2011

eReader News Round Up: B&N Newsstand a Hit, Sony and Plastic Logic Make News

It's been a busy week for eReaders, as Barnes and Noble NOOKnewsstand showed potential, Sony delivered on a promise, an intriguing slate came out of the woodwork, and Russia put their foot in the door of the eReader market.
  • NOOKnewsstand Gets Going Thanks to NOOKcolor
    The Barnes and Noble NOOKnewsstand, which allows users to purchase popular magazines and newspapers on their NOOKs, has taken off with a total of 650,000 single-copy and subscription sales. Barnes and Noble attributes much of NOOKnewsstand's success to the release of the NOOKcolor. The service currently offers around 100 newspapers and magazines, including popular titles like Elle, Men's Health, Martha Stewart Living, Rolling Stone, Newsweek, the LA Times, the Chicago Tribune, and the Boston Globe.
  • Sony Finally Delivers
    Sony is finally delivering cross-platform Android support with the launch of the Sony Reader App, which runs on Android 2.2 and above. This still leaves a lot of Android devices out in the cold (sorry Eclair users), but will allow customers with Samsung Galaxy Tabs or smartphones running Android's latest versions access to their Sony eReader library. The app supports PDF and ePub files, and is available for free in the Android Market.
    Source
  • NoteSlate BlackBarebones NoteSlate Hopes to Attract Customers with Simplicity
    For the eWriters out there, there will be an intriguing new product available in June called the NoteSlate. Being marketed as a low-tech alternative to the increasingly impressive tablets on the market, NoteSlate's manufacturers zen-ly describe it: "It's active, creative, you cannot browse the web, networks, read, watch, play... the Internet, social networks, connecting everywhere are just beginning, part of the contemporary future… We don't want to be overwhelmed with technology [sic]." So, the NoteSlate won't have much connectivity outside of a USB port, and whether the unembellished paper substitute will appeal to consumers at $99 is anyone's guess. It will not be available in stores, but rather will be found exclusively online at NoteSlate's website.
  • Russia's eReader Move
    The Russian Corporation of Nanotechnologies (aka Rusnano) has made a $700 million investment in Plastic Logic, a company most well known for their ambitious, yet ultimately cancelled, QUE eReader. Managing Director of Rusnano, Georgy Kolpachev, explained the move: "We are making an unprecedented investment of close to a billion dollars in the future of plastic electronics to help create one of the largest commercial centers for it in Russia." With this new investment, the formerly England-based Plastic Logic will be opening a new production facility near Moscow in Zelenograd, Russia.  How this affects the eReader market really depends on whether or not Plastic Logic can produce a device that can successfully compete with the bevy of current eReader options.
    Source

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