Ebook news is still coming in fast and furious to the beautiful MobilitySite Reading Room high atop Mobility Tower, as more and more players are getting involved or expanding their approach to Ebooks.

We are still waiting to see if the Barnes and Noble event taking place tomorrow in New York will be the much anticipated Athena Ebook Reader announcement, and I am figuring that such an outcome is 95 percent certain at this point. Of course, I was also ABSOLUTELY SURE we would have cameras on iPod Touches right now, so what do I know? However, Ed Hardy at Brighthand confirmed the Oct 20th event today, and agrees with me that it is almost certainly the Reader announcement. I mean, what else are they going to do at the event, play Mad Libs?

Ed also brought up a rumor that has fallen by the wayside lately, that the Athena will be running Android. Ed says that he feels Android will be the software that handles the cellular connection. Previous rumors indicated that the Reader will have WiFi as well, which would also lend credence to the Athena running Android (though Linux is always possible). Still no word on price yet. I would hope that they would try to undercut the Kindle and aim for Sony’s $200 price point, but who knows how much the leaked dual screen set up will bump the price up.

Ah well, we will know one way or another in a day or so…and there is lots more to talk about concerning Ebooks until then.

Plastic Logic, the company that supposedly is creating the Athena Reader for Barnes & Noble (though if you mention a color reading display they will probably kick the crap out of you), is covering all bases by announcing an upcoming reader to be sold under their own brand as the Que. The Que is being billed as a “premium reading experience” by Richard Archuleta, chief executive of Plastic Logic, which I imagine will place the device in the $300-$500 price range above the Kindle. Boo Hiss.

The device is only a third of an inch thick and made of sleek black plastic, as far as we can tell, with a 8.5×11 inch E-ink screen, like a sheet of notebook paper. Technically it will sport both WiFi and cellular access to AT&T’s 3G data/phone network (like the Athena they are making for B&N, perhaps?), a touch-screen interface, and a battery that will last for days.

Made entirely from plastic so that it is more durable and flexible than some other Readers, the Que is being aimed at business users as opposed to the Kindle’s aggressively consumer oriented approach. Plastic Logic’s flagship device will be able to view Adobe PDF files, Microsoft Word, PowerPoint presentations, and Excel spreadsheets as well as standard Ebook formats. It will use Barnes & Nobles software for reading and access the B&N Ebook Store.

The Que is meant to make it’s first appearance in January at CES in Vegas, so we have lots of time to get excited about this one. However, from the business focus and the repeated use of the word “Premium” I have a feeling the Que will be competing with new age Tablets like Apple’s possible Tablet and Microsoft’s Courier rather than the Kindle and Athena. The future of Ebook Readers imho, if Ebooks are to flourish, is in lower cost ubiquitous devices, not Premium versions…but the Que looks pretty damn cool so we shall see.

Another device that is using Barnes and Noble software and Ebook store (hmmm…could this trend be worrying Amazon just a little bit?) is the iRex line of Ebook Readers. The iRex iLiad is a well-known reader in Europe and the Dutch company is about to make a major push into the growing US market with the upcoming 3G iRex Digital Reader 800SG (catchy name, no? Maybe they should work on that….after all, I sort of dig the name iLiad. Is it too much to call the new one the Odyssey?).

PaidContent recently spoke to Kevin Hamilton, the North American CEO for IREX Technologies from the Frankfurt Book Fair. According to Hamilton, iRex is affiliated with Verizon for the new 3G device, but since the Reader is set to retail for $399, they are open to possible Carrier subsidy situations in the US or anywhere, with or without Verizon. He also confirmed that though the capabilities for web browsing and email could be available on the 800SG due to the fact it is running a Qualcomm Gobi chip under the hood, they won’t be enabled for the foreseeable future. iRex learned from the all around awful web experience on the Kindle and knows that most people aren’t looking to read their Email on their Ebook Reader, especially if it doesn’t do it well.

However, Hamilton says iRex IS looking into the possibility of it’s own App Store, and is encouraging developers to create simple programs for the iRex devices which run on Linux. He also indicated that he would like to see basic Social Network access from the iRex via third party apps.

On top of all that, he had some good comments concerning the other participants in the suddenly crowded but narrow niche of Ebook Readers.

Regarding his partners at Barnes and Noble, Hamilton said..

The companies share a distinctive, open view of the eReader market – customers should be able to purchase eBooks and read them on a range of platforms, from smartphones to dedicated eReader devices.We were not surprised (by B&N plans for their own device); we’ve known that for over a year. Barnes & Noble wants to have their eBookstore on as many devices as they can get. I wouldn’t be surprised to see six or 10 devices with their content eventually. I don’t view that as being really the make or break on the business model; the business model is about ease, it’s about openness, it’s about connectivity, and obviously the form factor and the design of the device. … At the end of the day, there’s only about 350,000 e-book titles available on the market; Amazon’s got ‘em all, Barnes & Nobel’s got ‘em all. It’s almost commoditized.

Of course B&N claims to have 700,000 books available, but who’s counting?

And what about Steve Jobs’ recent comments that Ebook Readers are too limited to catch on and the threat from an Apple Tablet?

“It’ll be a beautiful device; it’ll probably be expensive—700 bucks or something in that neighborhood. It’s going to be a wonderful Safari-based web browsing experience with a three-hour battery and it’s going to be alike a big iPhone or a big iTouch. It will have a market, it will have a niche and people will rave about it, but it is not, in my opinion, the ultimate reading device. With LCD, eyestrain is an issue, battery life’s an issue and visibility in different lighting in different lighting conditions is an issue.”

No word on when the 800SG will be available in the US (or anywhere else for that matter), but the iLiad 2 is available from iRex’s website is a very nice device as well.

Zealot (469 Posts) - Website | Twitter | Facebook

By day a department manager and writer for a major network device vendor...by night Zealot stalks the mean magnetic streets, striking fear into the hearts of bandwidth abusers and theme park mascots. Zealot has been involved with mobile devices for more than a decade now, starting off with dumb phones, moving to PDAs and then to smartphones, notebooks and netbooks with the odd PMP thrown in. Most of his mobile time currently is spent on a Treo Pro, Zune HD, Thinkpad T61, Gigabyte M912M or a Hackintoshed Compaq Mini 704. He proudly groks the Geek community and considers himself a Neo Maxi Zune Dweebie (thanks Will Wheaton!).