Plastic Logic, a US company whose planned electronic reader has attracted a lot of media buzz, said on October 19 that it will announce the availability and pricing of the device for business professionals in January. The Mountain View, California-based firm said it will unveil the details about its first e-reader, to be called the "QUE," at the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas on January 7.
Another US company, Spring Design Inc announced plans meanwhile to release an e-reader known as "Alex" powered by Google open-source Android software. The Fremont, California-based Spring said it was currently in discussions with major content partners and planned to release the device later this year.
The Alex features dual screens - a main electronic paper display screen and a secondary colour liquid crystal display (LCD) screen for Web browsing.
Plastic Logic said the "QUE" would be aimed at business professionals as opposed to current models such as Amazon's Kindle and others that target casual and leisure readers. "In addition to connecting its users with their business and professional newspapers, books and periodicals, QUE supports the document formats business users need (including PDF, Word, PowerPoint, and Excel documents) and features powerful tools for interacting with and managing the content," it said.
The QUE is thin - less than one-third of an inch (0.85 centimetres) thick - lightweight and wireless-enabled, and has a bigger screen than most current e-readers.
Forrester Research estimates that three million e-readers will be sold in the United States this year, up from a previous forecast of two million units, and for e-reader sales to double to six million units next year.