Like the device used in the Tom Cruise vehicle Minority Report, a new e-newspaper reader is being announced September 8 by Plastic Logic at Demo, a San Diego tech trade show.
The screen is as large as a piece of copier paper--currently the largest on the market--and, like Amazon.com's Kindle and Sony's eReader, Plastic Logic's device uses E Ink technology and stores hundreds of pages of text and black and white images. The digital newspapers will update several times per day and Plastic Logic's reader nabs the feeds via Wi-Fi. The display is 2.5 times larger than the Kindle; it's also two ounces heavier and one-third thinner. It will be available for sale the first half of next year.
The electronic newspaper has been discussed among big companies for years, and given the declining state of printed media, its debut seems well-timed. But is the news-reading public prepared to drop several hundred dollars plus the cost of subscriptions on something already available on other readers and for free on the Internet?
A similar device, the iLiad, popped up in Europe a few years ago and came packed with a hefty price tag--the product costs 599 euros ($855) and comes with a one-year subscription; subscriptions cost 189 euros ($270) for each year thereafter.
The perfect e-newspaper reader is years off. E Ink, the company behind the screen technology, hopes to develop software that will allow users to write on the screen and watch videos. Other companies are also working on devices that will bend like physical newspapers for easy reading and portability. Such dynamic products won't likely hit the market for many years, which isn't surprising given the technology's infancy.
While I appreciate the thinness and clarity, I feel an 8.5-inch device is too large (and expensive) for the casual reader. Technology today is thinner and smaller than ever before, and while that is not necessarily ideal for newspaper reading, it's certainly taken into consideration by the buying public.
Plastic Logic's announcement adds healthy competition to the field. I expect the delayed Kindle 2.0 will emerge relatively soon and come bundled with advanced newspaper-reading capabilities.
