AfterDawn: Tech news

Asus set to enter ebook market

Written by James Delahunty @ 08 Sep 2009 12:21 User comments (4)

Asus set to enter ebook market Asus is planning to bring two ebook readers to the market to take Amazon and Sony head on, according to reports. Asus is one of the world's biggest consumer electronics companies, and in the last couple of years it played a large part in the rise of the netbook, a low-cost alternative to a laptop. Now Asus is planning to bring affordable ebook readers to the market to undercut the Kindle.
The Times Online quotes Jerry Shen, CEO, as source. The report says that the company is expecting to offer two different devices, a budget ebook reader and a more feature-rich premium ebook reader. The readers will have a hinged spine with two screens to emulate a book, with touchscreen controls to flick through pages.

While other ebook readers are offered with a monochrome screen, Asus' ebook readers could show full color images of the pages. Some other possible uses for the ebook reader that are mentioned are using Skype with an available mic and speaker, or viewing webpages.



"Our ethos is innovation — as our brand is less well known, we have to run faster than the competition to develop new types of products," Asus is reported as saying. "Any such product — including an ereader — has to have the right combination of functionality and price. No one is going to buy one for £1,000."

Of course, nobody would pay anything close to £1000 for an ebook reader. However, the budget version of the readers, dubbed "Eee Reader", is expected to aim for a price tag of around £100.

Previous Next  

4 user comments

18.9.2009 01:37

i hate ebooks, buy a real book fer crying out loud.

This message has been edited since its posting. Latest edit was made on 08 Sep 2009 @ 1:38

28.9.2009 13:13

I, for one am very pleased with this. There needs to be variety in every market. Sony's reader was absolutely fantastic. The only issue for me was the size. When it came to reading my archived manga it was a little difficult. This could be improved with a few more inches which is available with the Amazon DX but 500 is just far too much/ More companies. Lower prices. Sounds fantastic.

38.9.2009 13:37

i just dont like that that they can turn off on you. on a long plane ride, id choose a book, but when on the loo, its alot easier having this, plus if it can get the daily news, i wont complain :D

428.10.2009 05:43

I was promised book readers by Isaac Asimov in the foundation trilogy. I have 4 different kinds. The best was one of the originals, the Rocket ebook.
My problem with the readers is that the seller of the reader also wants to be your only provider of ebooks. They decide what they will sell. I read 3 books a week, I go to 3 or 4 ebook stores just to find what I want and still have problems getting some new ebooks because there is a "spitting war in some of the ebook stores who want you to buy a certain format because they might someday produce a reader in that format". Yes I am speaking of "Fictionwise.com". Don't get me wrong I have purchased about 800 or 900 ebooks from them and will continue to purchase. I might even buy the "sometime in the future if we can ever get it to work correctly" reader. Just don't limit the format sold on some books to "the Pie in the sky" reader you might have.
There are enough formats for ebooks, there are not enough readers that are good enough for me to keep shelling out 600 or so bucks per reader.
eInk is nice but you need to cart around a book light to read. LCD is beautiful, but it uses too much juice to last 20 or so hours, primary reason is that they are not just readers.
We need just readers, I don't require my books to play music, show me websites or even get me more books. I can do that other ways. I do expect my books to allow me to read for hours on end, maybe even a week or two while I am out and about and cannot recharge them. I hope one day for a reader that allows me as many formats that my palm device allows, so far 3. Gee wouldn't it be nice if Palm put out a reader with Mobi, eReader and Adobe on it. Too much like science fiction for that to happen.

Comments have been disabled for this article.

Latest news

VLC hits milestone: over 5 billion downloads VLC hits milestone: over 5 billion downloads (16 Mar 2024 4:31)
VLC Media Player, the versatile video-software powerhouse, has achieved a remarkable feat: it has been downloaded over 5 billion times.
1 user comment
Sideloading apps to Android gets easier, as Google settles its lawsuit Sideloading apps to Android gets easier, as Google settles its lawsuit (19 Dec 2023 11:09)
Google settled its lawsuit in September 2023, and one of the settlement terms was that the way applications are installed on Android from outside the Google Play Store must become simpler. In the future, installing APK files will be easier.
8 user comments
Roomba Combo j7+ review - Clever trick allows robot vacuum finally to tackle home with rugs and carpets Roomba Combo j7+ review - Clever trick allows robot vacuum finally to tackle home with rugs and carpets (06 Jun 2023 9:19)
Roomba Combo j7+ is the very first Roomba model to combine robot vacuum with mopping features. And Roomba Combo j7+ does all that with a very clever trick, which tackles the problem with mopping and carpets. But is it any good? We found out.
Neato, the robot vacuum company, ends its operations Neato, the robot vacuum company, ends its operations (02 May 2023 3:38)
Neato Robotics has ceased its operations. American robot vacuum pioneer founded in 2005 has finally called it quits and company will cease its operations and sales. Only a skeleton crew will remain who will keep the servers running until 2028.
5 user comments
How to Send Messages to Yourself on WhatsApp How to Send Messages to Yourself on WhatsApp (20 Mar 2023 1:25)
The world's most popular messaging platform, Meta-owned WhatsApp has enabled sending messages to yourself. While at first, this might seem like an odd feature, it can be very useful in a lot of situations. ....
18 user comments

News archive