Skiff and Marvell announce Skiff Reader Develop Kit in a bid to rule the e-world

We've been hearing a lot about Marvell lately driven, in part, by the rapid growth in e-reader devices. Now it's teamed up with Hearst's ambitious venture, Skiff, to create the Skiff Reader Development Kit (RDK) designed to allow manufacturers to quickly create inexpensive reading devices using Marvell's Armada System-on-a-chip with integrated electronic paper display controller. Naturally, the RDK includes built-in software support for the Skiff eReading service and digital storefront. Interesting, very interesting. It's becoming clear that Skiff's approach to toppling Amazon's early e-reader / service juggernaut is to flood the market with devices hooked into a compelling value proposition for publishers and content owners and then ultimately (sometime later this year), consumers. Hold tight kids, this could be Apple (Amazon) vs. Microsoft (Skiff/Hearst) all over again.

[neeko18 Posted Jan 8th 2010 10:32AM]

im not even in the market for an e-reader but i would buy this. hopefully the price is reasonable..

[lykaice Posted Jan 8th 2010 11:28AM]

@neeko18 It will be the thinnest e-reader to hit the market, weighing just over a pound and sporting an 11.5" touch screen. It will also be the first product to rely on a new technology of e-paper that uses a sheet of stainless-steel foil which can be bent. Now you can hear amazon ebook reader fans scratching their head.s now: More skiff detailsS: http://bit.ly/skiff-reader-amazing-details

[xcomme Posted Jan 8th 2010 10:32AM]

If the price is right, the design is looking pretty promising.

[(Unverified) Posted Jan 8th 2010 11:12AM]

yea.. it looks good compared to kindle....
but i still dont get e-ink when you can have full color on a tablet

[Timmmmmm Posted Jan 8th 2010 11:27AM]

@(Unverified) I'm starting to think engadget should add a standard disclaimer to e-ink articles:

"E-ink is very different to LCD displays. E-ink is reflective, and has a similar appearance to newspaper. *Obviously you can't see the difference on an LCD screen.*"

[RafterManFMJ Posted Jan 8th 2010 12:52PM]

@(Unverified)
Battery life!

[hawknj Posted Jan 8th 2010 11:19AM]

Let's see I only need 1 kidney 1 lung and 1/2 a liver to live so with that and what little I can save I am ready to buy one. First I must find the blackmarket that deals in body parts.

It just looks soo nice I need one and I read less then 1 book a year unless it has pictures in it.

[Timmmmmm Posted Jan 8th 2010 11:28AM]

@hawknj You would read more if you had one.

[hawknj Posted Jan 8th 2010 11:38AM]

I do have a gateway tablet and use zinio on it but it met with some spilled pepsi and now no screen. So I really really do need one.

[cashmonee Posted Jan 8th 2010 12:33PM]

This reader looks like it really would work for newspapers. Does the kindle display newspapers in a similar fashion?

[itachiunleashed Posted Jan 8th 2010 12:58PM]

PFFFT. They should instead focus on partnering with Marvel. E-book Comics FTW!

[rtrski Posted Jan 8th 2010 1:56PM]

@DarkElfa:

Then everyone who downloads bootlegs of Frank Miller's "Sin City" will complain their color e-readers aren't working.*

(*disclaimer - yes, I am aware that after the first few issues, Sin City stories did include selective use of color besides B&W)

[blinky Posted Jan 9th 2010 10:24PM]

I have a bunch of PDFs that I need to read. This device doesn't read PDFs, so I'm going to go with the Nook.

[xconan Posted Jan 10th 2010 2:03AM]

it could mean that the skiff could get an upper hand if it's os and marketplace is better than amazon just as winmo was but didn't really clean-up until after iphone showed up