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Astak E Ink readers: Five- and six-inchers due in July; 9.7 inch flexi screen and Walmart and Costco e-stores in ’08?
June 17, 2008 | 5:50 pm
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By David Rothman
While Wall Streeters talk about Amazon dominating the e-book market, who says other retailers are asleep?
Suppose that giants such as Walmart and Costco can sell e-reader hardware—and offer branded e-stores, with tens of thousands of books that shoppers can download wirelessly to Astak machines. What if one model didn’t just hit the stores in October, but also offered a rugged, 9.7-inch flexible screen, started out at maybe $589, and possibly dropped to as little as $450 after three-six months?
Those are among the tantalizing possibilities that Bob Barry, Astak business development executive for North America, mentioned just now in a TeleRead interview. Major technical and business questions abound, and he is
simply sketching out optimistic scenarios. For those of us who fear an Amazon e-book monopoly, however, and who are not privy to Sony’s plans or Apple’s possible ones, or those of other competitors such as Cybook or iRex, it’s good to know that competitive Astak alternatives may exist as well—especially with talks continuing between Bob and giants such as Walmart and Costco.
July 28 new date for five- and six-inchers—with touch screen, WiFi and BlueTooth possible for $299
Here are a few of the tidbits that Bob shared over the phone:
–Models with five- and six-inch screens are tentatively scheduled to be offered for sale at the Astak Web site around July 28. That’s next month, yes, not this one as Astak originally wanted, but it is still an acceptable delay, given all the technical and business variables. Astak hoped to sell the five incher for less than $200 but now plans to start out at $229-$249 in order to allow pricing flexibility for the big chains, which Bob hopes will start selling Astak products around October. While the Sony Reader PRS-505 now goes for around $300 list and down to perhaps $250-$280 discounted, Astak is hoping to offer more features. Also, Bob would like for a six-incher with a touch screen, Bluetooth and WiFi to sell for perhaps $299. Fingers crossed. Let’s hope that the new machines will be able to read Mobi and .epub and other possibilities now or in the future.
–Astak is delaying the 9.7-inch model until around October, several months later than planned, and now envisions starting out at, say, $588—with possible price declines to $450 in three-six months. Because of concerns over cracked screens at that size, Prime View International might make flexible screen technology available. No definite commitment. Durability issues exist with the rigid displays at that size; even a little twisting of case could be lethal—hence the investigation into the flexi approach. I myself think Astak would be wise to delay the larger unit even longer if need be. As Bob has pointed out, imagine moving 400,000 e-book readers and then finding you haven’t solved all the problems. The model in the photo is simply an early prototype. By far, it is the one drawing the most interest from dozens of people writing Astak daily.
–Both Walmart and Costco want full solutions—e-book-stores, not just hardware. The way it looks now, Astak will start out with its own store in the summer, learn, then provide stores for Walmart and Costco to offer with their brands, under their domains. Possible sources of books could be Ingram or Overdrive.
More on the F word—format questions
Needles to say, it will be interesting to see how the Mobipocket issue shakes out. Remember? Mobi does not want to have its software on the same hardware as other DRM-capable apps.
Could one solution be for Astak to offer an easy-to-use ePub reader that didn’t include DRM capabilities? At the same time, as I see it, Astak and allies could make deals with small, DRM-hating publishers and promote their books to the hilt (disclosure: My novel The Solomon Scandals will come out in E and P from a publisher matching just such a description). With outlets like Walmart or Costo, this could be a great way for Astak to help the e-book industry wean itself off DRM. If Jeff Bezos keeps insisting on DRM for his Kindle store, even though he brags about selling DRMless MP3s music, he might be in for a rude shock if the competition gets there first in the e-book area.
The wireless angle: I wonder if eventually Astak can work out arrangements with a major cellular carrier to offer e-book downloading no matter where customers are. Meanwhile is it possible that people without WiFi could visit Walmart or Costco to download books?
Memory cards: Furthermore, Bob has broached the possibility of memory cards coming with bundled books—freebies or maybe those authorized by publishers. Hello, Baen? This could be a natural for you, given your Free Library. Tor as well. Both publishers could include the first in series to hook customers
Invitation: If other E Ink hardware vendors want to get as specific with me as Bob did, I’ll be all ears. No favoritism for any specific vendor!
And an aside to Amazon: The invitation includes you, too, although I can recall Jeff B. saying that the company won’t be coming out in the next few months with a Kindle successor. Jeff, could the Astak machines change your mind? Oh, and remember Astak’s close partnership with PVI, your screen supplier. Perhaps, it’s time to tell your Mobipocket people to be less pushy about Mobi DRM exclusives on E Ink machines. Astak has its own connections and love to see it or other vendors use pull to rid the e-book world of Mobi’s consumer-hostile requirements.
Technorati Tags: Astak Mentor,Astak,Walmart,Costco
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Comments:
When selling at outlets such a Walmart and Costco I suspect that Astak won’t be selling to the most sophisticated consumer group. I see this all the time in my area of expertise – GPS. It is a very different crowd than the internet-savy downloading group.
I think this means that your possible scenario about small publishers won’t work. The buyers will want all the latest stuff and won’t be the slightest bit interested in anything they haven’t heard of. This means, unfortunately, DRM. But unless DRM’ed books are offered I don’t think there will be enough of a draw to lure in buyers.
Remember, the hardware is unimportant. All it has to do is work well and sort of “fade into the background”. People are not buying the hardware, they are buying the “reading” and unless enough good, recognizable, popular stuff is available I don’t think the public will go for it. If you look at the Sony Reader and the Kindle, they are popular because of the large selection of well known books, including best sellers. I don’t think very many of the Sony/Kindle owners even know that much about DRM. The ones I know bought them because of the big libraries of available books. They may come to hate DRM later, but that did not influence their initial decision to buy the product.
Paul, you raise excellent questions. Ideally, however, both Walmart and Amazon can learn how to create demand for featured titles. DRM subtracts from the value offered Walmart shoppers. In fact, Walmart could even undertake a campaign to educate them—and thereby differentiate itself from Amazon. Not saying that’ll happen. But that’s what I’d do in Walmart’s place, or Costco’s, especially since small publishers might well be able to give them better terms. Thanks. David
In dealing with Ebook harware we also need to drop the term Ebook, the first content might not be traditional novels, imagine encyclopedia britania or the entire archive of sports illustrated on a SDcard. That alone might make a eInk reader worth it for consumers.
And once they are sold and have standard interfaces everything else can be dealt with by any 3rd party vendor if theres profits to be made.
DRM lockdown is the problem because it means the gizmo must be under control by someone beside the owner for it to be efficient and thats the bit thats i at least don’t see as compatible with any traditional market model.
I have a suggestion for an ebook reader, taking a cue from my cell phone: How about a ‘slider’ style reader, where the keyboard can slide down for typing, or up and out of the way for tablet-style use? You could put a flip-down ‘easel’ stand on the back for improved ease of typing. Seems like this would work well for the Kindle.
Personally, as a Kindle user, I’d love to have the keyboard slide out of the way–as long as getting it in and out was convenient, because I use it fairly regularly for notes / searches. In fact, I’d want it to be mechanically stable in the keyboard-out configuration (i.e. keyboard doesn’t wobble or slide back in when I don’t want it to), because there are files I’ve made notes in for every other paragraph. Also, I use the Kindle at practically every angle–a keyboard I could only use by setting the Kindle on the table wouldn’t be very helpful to me.
That said, I’d love to have more screen “real estate” and if the keyboard could move out of the way when not needed, that would be great.
I’ve been watching the Astak 9.7 with great interest–if they have a viable text-entry method, and can handle regular pdfs, they’d make a great reader for scientific articles.
Until the ebook readers start coming down in price, the only people buying them will be the well off. Books are still far cheaper in the stores than through Amazon, even on their Kindle. Sure there are some that are very cheap, but are they the books anyone wants to read?
If I want to read a book, I’m not going to spend nearly $400 just for the ability to read it on the go, that’s what an $8 paperback is for. Or even better, buy the book used somewhere for $4. No DRM, no conversion from one format to another, I just pick it up off the shelf and read it.
Ebook readers are never going to become mainstream until the manufacturers remember that a book doesn’t require an intial hardware purchase. I do understand that these have the ability to store lots of books in them, but how many people read more than one at a sitting anyways? You may be reading several books at the same time, but you’re not reading them concurrently, so you don’t need to carry them with you.
Textbooks should be on these things. My daughter has to carry a 30-35 lb. backpack with her books in it back and forth from school, just to do her homework. It would be far easier to make them electronically readable and let her carry that around at 1-2 lbs.
Dear David:
A very good and honest article that I like. It is well written and stated facts. Please call or email anytime as your news is well written and, while not playing favorites, presents Astak as actually trying to bring prices down while bringing the Mentor/LiteBook to the masses.
I ALSO agree with your reader’s comments that prices NEED to come down on both hardware and eBooks. I would add that what drives prices down is VOLUME. The surest way to decrease eBook prices is to have eBook Readers selling more and more titles. Astak is talking with some of the largest publishers on earth now on a regular basis.
Here is some fact that few know:
Right now the GOLD Master for books is NOT in digital format at almost all publishers… it is in paper form. That means that they have to digitally convert when they want to do it in eBooks. This conversion means COST and COST is what you are fighting.
As more eBook readers are sold… the GOLD Master will be digital. Once that is done, then prices CAN come down for eBooks. SO… Astak is trying to sell thru large chain stores. Why is this important… because chain stores sell to the masses! If you can get a good 5 inch out there with all the right features and it does a great job… eBook sales should go through the roof…. meaning they CAN cost less. David is telling it like it is and I applaud that. You don’t HAVE to buy a Mentor/LiteBook… but do realize that, to a large extent, YOUR desire to see eBook prices come down is tied to one thing: getting enough eBook Readers into the hands of the masses! That is what Astak is trying to do!
Robert B.
Thanks, Robert (and, yes, it’ll be Robert next time if that’s the best choice
! Enjoyed talking to you.
I’m dead-serious about not playing favorites with vendors, but I can’t help but observe that the original TeleRead proposal back in the early ’90s envisioned e-readers being sold at discount stores.
So I’m getting a big kick out of seeing Astak pursue those possibilities.
I hope people will understand the implications here when it comes to price reduction—both in hardware and content!
Best of luck to you (and the other companies with similar goals)!
Thanks,
David
Wow, this was a lot of nothing. But it’s good to see what these guys ‘hope for.’
Here are the two bombshells in the interview for me:
1. I found Barry’s indication that publishers’ ‘gold master’ is currently paper. That is just mind-blowing. What does it mean? That final adjustments to books come at the typesetter, I suppose? And then these changes must be hand-made to the digital files farther upstream? The major publishers are even farther behind the times than I had dreamt. I can’t imagine that small publishers are so backward.
2. Also the fragility of ‘rigid’ eInk screens is not something I’d heard of before. I guess this explains the recent reports of cracked and shattered Kindle screens.
It’s too bad about the rise in price. To me this means, ‘Don’t buy one yet!’ Either they will get a deal with a discounter who can then trumpet, ‘List price $249. Our price $199.’ Or, the discounters will all turn away, and Astak will then lower their own price.
Any word on whether the Astaks will incorporate the new Epson controllers that will allow for faster page refresh rates? End of July release might be too soon for the Computex-announced Epson controllers.
I must say, all things being equal, I’d rather go with a $300 MID tablet device with a 7″ LCD screen that shows full color, and can run FBReader and even, if it runs WindowsXP, just about every format out there, including djvu magazines and .lit MS-Reader books. And can surf the web and play videos.
eInk has come a long way from the years of ‘Coming soon!’ but it still has a good ways to go in increasing yields, lowering price, faster refresh rates, and color.
Battery life? I’d be happy with a no-battery, plug-only ebook reading device. But none of the manufacturers seem to recognize this as a marketable niche as yet, alas…
Thanks, Pond, but I myself found lots of “something.” It’s hard to say for sure what’s coming–this is a little like Kremlinology. But I’d much rather that Astak shared its hopes—with opps for feedback from you and others!—than just do an Amazon act and remain silent until release of the hardware. I’ve taken care to note the ifs. Just IMHO. Meanwhile I’ll point RobertB to your post and suggest that he fill us in if possible on the controllers, which, like you, I consider highly significant. Thanks, Pond! David
[...] Submitted by jrenaut on Wed, 06/25/2008 – 10:26pm. Teleread | Astak E Ink readers: Five- and six-inchers due in July; 9.7 inch flexi screen and Walmart… Models with five- and six-inch screens are tentatively scheduled to be offered for sale at the [...]