Que e-reader pulled from market
British firm Plastic Logic abandons first-generation of its Que proReader device before shipping a single unit The British technology firm Plastic Logic has abandoned the Que proReader, its pioneering e-reader device based on plastic electronics , without having shipped a single unit to customers. Plastic Logic announced last night that it was "moving on" to a second-generation e-reader, and would not sell its original product. The decision is a major blow to the company, which is based around technology that allows semiconductors to be printed on plastic rather than using silicon. The Que had been under development for several years and was one of the stars of the CES electronics show in January , but it appears that the success of rival products – such as the Amazon Kindle and Apple's iPad – means the original Que is no longer commercially viable. "We recognise the market has changed dramatically, and with the product delays we have experienced, it no longer make sense for us to move forward with our first generation electronic reading product," said Richard Archuleta, chief executive of Plastic Logic. "This was a hard decision, but is the best one for our company, our investors and our customers." Plastic Logic did not reveal any details about its plans for its second-generation e-reader. It appears that the product is not imminent, with Archuleta saying only that the company would "take the necessary time needed to re-enter the market". The original Que proReader was marketed as a product for business users that would allow books and newspapers to be carried and read in an electronic format . There were two versions, both with touch-sensitive monochrome plastic screens. A 4GB unit that supported Wi-Fi and Bluetooth was expected to cost £400, while an 8GB version which also included 3G was priced at £495. In comparison, Apple's cheapest iPad costs £429, while Amazon will soon starting shipping a Wi-Fi enabled Kindle for £109.
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Que e-reader pulled from market
Amazon says it was a Kindle Christmas - but still no sales figures
To all intents and purposes, Amazon's continuing push into the electronic book market with the Kindle looks unstoppable. Its latest landmark? On Christmas Day, it said, Amazon.com sold more ebooks than paper ones for the first time ever . That well-timed announcement led to a number of glowing media reports. It's good for Amazon that ebook sales appear brisk, but the company still isn't releasing sales figures - which means it's actually a pretty meaningless comparison. Christmas Day, after all, is not peak shopping season, but when you get an empty Kindle from Santa, you're going to need to put some books on it. Without numbers, it's impossible to determine whether or not the Kindle is firing up bookworms - did its record-breaking day involve hundreds, thousands, millions of book sales? Who knows. This is exactly the sort of statistical massage I wrote about last week , in a piece that detailed the guessing game over the Kindle's sales figures and how Amazon cleverly chooses its phrasing to make it sound like the Kindle is everywhere. That may be the case, but when I asked whether readers had seen a Kindle in the wild, sightings, while encouraging, were not overwhelming : Andrys: "[on a recent trip], 4 of the other 10 travelers owned Kindles and 2 more (a couple) had tried to order them from Amazon hoping they'd arrive in Israel where they were at the time." simonsomething : "Never seen a Kindle, but have spotted a couple of Sony eReaders on planes." Reggaestar : "I have seen one on the train on my daily commute." dgsweet : "A recent subway ride in New York -- I was reading a Kindle and my wife was reading a Kindle. As we got off the train, a woman getting on was carrying hers." It's hardly surprising that a company chooses to show itself in the best possible light. Kindle sales may well be very strong indeed. But Amazon has always made a point of trying to appear straight and honest ( Jeff Bezos's forthright apology over the 1984 debacle was one of the best I've seen, for example). Even Apple, the most secretive company I've dealt with, gives out sales figures. And don't forget: finding out how many Kindles are being sold isn't just about checking whether Amazon is telling us the truth
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Amazon says it was a Kindle Christmas - but still no sales figures
Have you seen a Kindle in the wild?
You have probably seen a succession of puffs from Amazon about how the Kindle is its "best-selling item" - but without any numbers to back up its claims. The company's secrecy isn't surprising, but it's problematic for several reasons - not least because people are now starting to make major bets on the future of their businesses based on those claims. That thought process is what led me to write a piece about that secrecy, and how Amazon's refusal to talk about sales figures could cause a number of problems . In addition to the people quoted in the article, I just spoke by email with James McQuivey, an analyst with Forrester who keeps track of the electronic book market, to get his view. Amazon doesn't reveal sales figures because it's the market leader, he says. "It's hard to argue that Amazon hasn't been successful in its business, so correspondingly it's hard to pinpoint any way in which Amazon's secrecy has hurt it," he said. "They know that to lead requires marshalling all your resources to beat everybody else even to obvious strategies. To do that, you often have to keep your lips sealed." The big question - how many Kindles are being sold right now - remains slightly elusive. But according to Forrester's analysis, the market will keep growing during 2010 in a way that suggests it will have an "iPod moment" (between 2003 and 2004, iPod sales rose by nearly 500%). "We estimate that by the end of 2010 there will be 4 million ereaders in the US, with more than half of them Kindles, probably close to 2.5m or so." He admits that even those numbers make the Kindle a long way from being mainstream, however. "Even at 2.5m possible Kindles in the market, that's less than 1 for every 100 people in the US - so while there's a lot of room to grow, it means that very few of the people around you at any given moment are likely to be Kindle owners. Plus, given that people do most of their reading at home – only 5% of the population travels regularly for business, an obvious Kindle target customer – it's unlikely that we'll see Kindles reach the public visibility that iPods and their white headphones had back in 2003." And there's the extra difficulty in divining what Amazon means when it says the Kindle is the biggest selling item on its site: it feels that the hype is a bit off base because, while I've seen people reading chart-topping books on the bus and train, I have yet to see a Kindle in the wild. Paul Biba from Teleread.org told me that he's seen them being used
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Have you seen a Kindle in the wild?
Tech it to the max: great gift ideas
From ebooks and music players, to smartphones and computer gizmos, there's gadgets for all – but it pays to research before you buy If you're planning to give someone a gadget or gizmo for Christmas, be careful, or, if you can't manage that, at least make it cheap. Gadget geeks tend to know what they want, and they can be unreasonably fussy about what are, to rational people, minor differences in specification
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Tech it to the max: great gift ideas
Amazon admits: international Kindle users will pay more
• International buyers to be charged 40% more per book • Admission contrasts with company's earlier comments Amazon has admitted that international users of its Kindle book reader will be paying significantly more to buy books than their American counterparts. Since announcing the worldwide launch of the Kindle on Wednesday, many users had questioned whether they would be forced to pay more for downloading books wirelessly to the £200 gadget. The company had attempted to allay those fears by insisting that foreign users would not be paying extra for downloads - but it has now emerged that the internet retail giant will indeed be charging higher prices for consumers outside the United States. When asked by the Guardian precisely how much downloads would cost, an Amazon.co.uk spokesman revealed that foreign customers - including those in Britain - would be paying $13.99 (£8.75) per book instead of the American price of $9.99 (£6.25). That amounts to a 40% premium for the same title. "International customers do pay a higher price for their books than US customers due to higher operating costs outside of the US," said the spokesman. "Additionally, VAT rates in the EU are higher on ebooks than on print books." Those comments are in strict contrast to earlier statements by the company , in which it had said specifically that "there are no additional fees for international customers". The shift is likely to raise questions over the future of the gadget - which goes on sale worldwide on October 19. Although prices are likely to drop when the company opens a Kindle store on its local websites, including Amazon.co.uk, the move has already angered consumer groups who suggested that the price hike was bad news for non-American users. "From our point of view, clearly companies can charge what they want to," said Matt Bath, the technology editor for Which? magazine. "However, I find it gobsmacking that the same piece of digital data is going to cost $4 more for a British customer than it will be for an American one. It's not like it costs any import taxes. It will be interesting to hear if this is anything other than a stealth tax." The extra costs are believed to derive in part from the fact that the device is being sold through Amazon.com - rather than the company's local outposts - and allows users to download books wirelessly from the company's American website.
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Amazon admits: international Kindle users will pay more
Who pays for British Kindle downloads? American customers
When Amazon announced the new "international" version of the Kindle ebook reader earlier this week, there were plenty of questions. How did it work? Why was it being launched through Amazon.com and not local versions like Amazon.co.uk? And, most importantly, who was paying for you to download your books wirelessly? Some of those questions were answered - but the last one was most perplexing. After all, Amazon said that it was operating its wireless Whispernet service in partnership with American network AT&T
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Who pays for British Kindle downloads? American customers
Microsoft denies digital reader plan
Software group says it has no plan to develop an e-reader to rival Amazon's Kindle Microsoft has no plans to develop a digital book reader to compete with the fast-growing popularity of Amazon's Kindle or a device that rival Apple is reportedly developing. A day after Amazon announced an international version of its gadget, Microsoft chief executive Steve Ballmer said the company had no need for its own e-reader, since it already supplies the software that runs the most popular reading device. "We have a device for reading
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Microsoft denies digital reader plan
Amazon launches Kindle book reader worldwide
• Popular gizmo goes on sale internationally on October 19 • Orders through US store will cost up to £200 British book fanatics will soon be able to get their hands on Amazon's popular Kindle electronic book reader, after the company unveiled an international version of the gadget. In an announcement today, Amazon boss Jeff Bezos said the Kindle will be available worldwide on October 19, selling through the company's American website and shipping to the UK for $279 (£175) - although import duties will push the price up to around £200. Although customers will have to order from the United States for the time being, Bezos said in a note to British customers on Amazon.co.uk that the gadget would eventually be sold through the company's British outlet. "In the future, we plan to introduce a UK-centric Kindle experience, enabling you to purchase Kindle and Kindle books in sterling from our Amazon.co.uk site," he said. The Kindle offers readers the chance to carry up to 1,500 books simultaneously, reading them on a 6-inch electronic ink screen and using the built-in wireless access - now compatible with Europe's 3G networks - to browse catalogues and download books without plugging in to a computer. The device became a surprise hit after it went on sale in the US just under two years ago. A second, more popular version was launched earlier this year to much acclaim and experts have suggested that Amazon has sold hundreds of thousands in America alone
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Amazon launches Kindle book reader worldwide
Petabytes on a budget
Backblaze was shocked by the cost of data servers and cloud-based storage systems, so it decided to build its own drive pods. But along the way, it has also raised interesting questions about the long-term costs of cloud computing, and how firms like Amazon can turn a profit Just after I'd bought my first terabyte hard drive, up comes a blog post about assembling cheap petabytes of storage (1 petabyte = 1,048,576 gigabytes). Backblaze says it provides unlimited storage for only $5 per month, so, the post says , "After looking at several overpriced commercial solutions, we decided to build our own custom Backblaze Storage Pods: 67 terabyte 4U servers for $7,867"
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Petabytes on a budget
Technophile: Amazon’s Kindle DX is bigger and bolder than the original
Amazon's Kindle DX is bigger and bolder than the original but there's still no UK release date in sight The Kindle DX has a lot to live up to. At its grand unveiling in New York in February, Amazon's chief executive, Jeff Bezos, suggested this large ebook reader for textbooks and periodicals (costing $489, or £296) would boost students' grades, kill the inkjet printer and, oh yes, save the newspaper industry. Even in the face of such hyperbole, unboxing the Kindle DX is a joy. A device that previously felt awkwardly mid-sized and halfway between an overweight mobile phone and a flimsy netbook now feels comfortable in its slim, plastic and brushed-metal skin. However, the price of its new gravitas is a 535g weight that requires two hands. As with the original Kindle ($359), the DX uses e-ink technology to deliver crisp text that is extremely easy on the eye. The largest font size (you can alter it at the touch of a button) has letters that are nearly 0.5cm tall and virtually leap off the screen. Pictures also benefit from extra room, despite a grainy monochrome reproduction. Its 9.7in screen, while larger than its predecessor, still only provides the reading area of a large paperback. That's considerably smaller than a full-sized textbook, let alone a Berliner-format paper such as the Guardian. The formatting of newspapers (including the Independent, the Times and the Financial Times, from the UK) remains basic, with a single column, no crossheads and a clunky menu system. The physical appeal of browsing headlines and flicking through sections is reduced to a tediously linear slog, much like reading the thousands of blogs you can also subscribe to. There are compensations for working digitally, of course. You can add bookmarks and notes to books and magazines, "clip" articles and blog entries to read later, and search any of your items for words or phrases. The DX works well with other formats: text documents and .mobi format ebooks work as smoothly as Amazon's proprietary AZW files, and PDFs render quickly with plenty of detail, although you can't annotate, rotate or zoom in.
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Technophile: Amazon's Kindle DX is bigger and bolder than the original