Plastic Logic joins race to introduce iPod of electronic readers

Expect to see several new e-readers by early next year, as the publishing industry follows in the footsteps of the music industry's move to digital players.

While every manufacturer wants to create the iPod of reading, Amazon's upcoming Kindle DX, with its larger screen, may take a piece of that action. Plastic Logic (www.plasticlogic.com) plans to release a large e-reader of its own.

I saw a prototype of Plastic Logic's first product and learned about the device during a recent e-reader summit at the University of Missouri. Sarah Gaeta, Plastic Logic's senior director for content development, said the e-reader will be simple to use and will have only one button. A touch screen will be the primary means of navigation and the image will automatically flip from portrait to landscape mode when the device is turned 90 degrees, just as they do on Apple's iPhone and iPod Touch.

"The goal is to pick it up and use it," Gaeta said. "Customers won't have to work hard. There's one button in the upper-left corner and the touch-screen interface means readers will swipe the screen to turn pages."

The device is just 6 millimeters thick and will weigh about 12 ounces, thanks to its plastic screen. It will have a black-and-white display, with color still a couple of years away, Gaeta said. Color isn't high on the features list, but is planned for future models.

A survey of e-reader users by the Donald W. Reynolds Journalism Institute put ease of use, price and a lightweight device at the top, said Roger Fidler, director of the institute's digital publishing program.

Gaeta doesn't expect lack of color to slow down Plastic Logic's first e-readers. She noted that the first Palm devices appeared in March 1996 and that 5.5 million units were sold before color was introduced four years later. And, she added, Apple sold 3 million iPods before the company came out with a color model in October 2005.

Although current versions of e-readers don't include advertising, Gaeta said the larger models will be a target for ads, even though color won't be available at first.

"Some advertisers are liking the 'cool factor' of black and white," she said.

Plastic Logic plans to offer a wireless content store at the time of launch, but more details aren't available. Customers will also be able to transfer documents to the reader through a universal serial bus connection to a computer. The first unit will be equipped with Wi-Fi, but not a 3G wireless connection, which is part of Amazon's products.

"The mobile business professional is the target audience," Gaeta said. "These are people who are on the move, read information and mark it up. Half of the content (on their e-reader) may be user-generated. The other is newspapers, magazines, journals and books."

Pricing will fall somewhere between $360 and $750, but prices should fall as the industry grows, Gaeta said.

Early adopters, get ready!

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