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Plastic Logic, Spring Design to unveil their first e-readers in next few months

“In addition to connecting its users with their business and professional newspapers, books and periodicals, QUE supports the document formats business users need.” — Plastic Logic

Plastic Logic, a US company whose planned electronic reader has attracted a lot of media buzz, said yesterday that it will announce the availability and pricing of the device for business professionals in January.

The Mountain View, California-based firm said it would unveil the details about its first e-reader, to be called the “QUE,” at the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas on Jan. 7.

Another US company, Spring Design Inc announced plans meanwhile to release an e-reader known as “Alex” powered by Google open-source Android software.

The Fremont, California-based Spring said it was currently in discussions with major content partners and planned to release the device later this year.

The Alex features two screens — an electronic paper display screen and a color liquid-crystal-display (LCD) secondary screen for Web browsing.

The announcements by Plastic Logic and Spring Design came one day ahead of the expected entry into the increasingly crowded e-reader field of US bookstore giant Barnes and Noble.

Barnes and Noble scheduled a press conference in New York for yesterday. It declined to reveal say what it would announce but there has been widespread speculation in technology blogs that the company planned to unveil an e-reader.

However, the Wall Street Journal reported on Monday that the device features color, a touchscreen display and the same price tag as Amazon.com Inc’s Kindle.

The device was called “Nook,” the newspaper said.

The Journal said the details came from a print advertisement scheduled to run in Sunday’s edition of the New York Times.

Barnes and Noble is also a content provider to Plastic Logic.

Plastic Logic said the “QUE” would be aimed at business professionals as opposed to current models such as Amazon’s Kindle and others that target casual and leisure readers.

“In addition to connecting its users with their business and professional newspapers, books and periodicals, QUE supports the document formats business users need [including PDF, Word, PowerPoint, and Excel documents] and features powerful tools for interacting with and managing the content,” the company said.

The QUE is thin — less than 0.85cm thick — lightweight and wireless-enabled, and has a bigger screen than most e-readers now on the market.

Other companies offering e-readers include Japan’s Sony, Britain’s Interead and Dutch company IREX Technologies.

Apple is also rumored to be coming out with a portable tablet computer early next year that may double as an e-reader.

Forrester Research estimates that 3 million e-readers will be sold in the US this year, up from a previous forecast of 2 million units.

It expects e-reader sales to double to 6 million units next year.
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