Plastic is the new paper. Amazon sees it with Kindle. Sony sees it with theirs and now Plastic Logic sees it with a new flexible reader in an 8.5 x 11-inch display and is aiming itself at the Business market as an alternative to paper or other electronic readers on the market today.
“Research confirms professionals read much more business content than recreational content. They require access to all formats of digital content at their fingertips, and want a large readable screen,” said Plastic Logic CEO Richard Archuleta.
The Plastic Logic reader supports a full range of business document formats, such as Microsoft Word, Excel and Powerpoint, and Adobe PDFs, as well as newspapers, periodicals and books. It has an easy gesture-based user interface and powerful software tools that will help business users to organize and manage their information. Users can connect to their information either wired or wirelessly and store thousands of documents on the device.So it looks to have a USB port (possibly a mini USB or micro USB) with Wifi or even better some sort of 3G service like the Whispernet found on Kindle, that recently had $100 off with a Chase Visa offer to drop the TCO to $259. The reader incorporates E Ink technology for great readability and features low power consumption and long battery life. The Plastic Logic reader is scheduled to ship in the first half of 2009.
It’s pretty thin. It is thinner than a pad of paper, lighter than many business periodicals, and offers a high-quality reading experience, but I am wondering how the flexible display is used from the above picture. It is a very intriguing device and looks much better than the Kindle IMHO, but if slate Tablet PCs could ever get this thin and conservative on power it would have a tough market, but it looks like Plastic logic has cut out its own niche.
Check out these videos of it in action.
Hopefully this comes out soon, because Sony has a color flexible screen they are working on that may enter into its E-reader market or gaming platform.