Acer tables e-reader plans, says market is 'not that big'
By Vlad Savov 
posted February 23rd 2010 2:42PM
posted February 23rd 2010 2:42PM
What's this we hear? Is it the distant thunder of sanity emanating from Acer's Taiwanese headquarters? The Taipei Times is reporting this morning Acer chairman Wang Jeng-tang's announcement that his company will not be releasing an ebook reader "for now." It was only a month ago that Jeng-tang and his crew were telling the world about the aggressive inroads they were going to make into the Amazon-dominated e-reader market, but it appears some second-guessing has been taking place in those Taipei boardrooms, which has led to the scrapping of the earlier plans. Considering the absolute glut of interchangeable E Ink devices out there, we have to agree with Acer's perspective; you either have to come up with something unique -- like the Nook, the Edge, or the Adam -- or just focus your energies elsewhere. Good job on remembering that we're more interested in seeing that mysterious ultrathin laptop than just another run of the mill 6-inch e-reader.
Indeed. Once the other display technologies really hit the market, the regular e-ink readers we have now will be woefully out of date.
I still want something with which I can read full color magazines, at least, before I start thinking about getting one.
@paul34 Would you mind paying the same amount you'd pay for 10-year worth color magazines for one color e-reader?
Perhaps that will at least drive down the inflated prices of the obsolete but still perfectly capable black&white eReaders.
Seriously, it's really E-Ink's monopoly that's keeping the prices of eReaders up. Mirasol and other competing e-paper technologies can't come fast enough.
@Unverified User
I guess you skip the ads in the e-version. Nothing prevents free ad supported magazines.
@(Unverified)
That's like saying that one should refuse to get e-mail because the computer, internet service, and electricity costs more than a few stamps.
Technology also has a convenience and at the beginning, even a luxury factor. Both of these have "value" which can be factored into the price.
It's far cheaper for you to walk across the US; but isn't it way easier to take a flight instead?
I wouldn't mind if they made 6+ inch sub $100 e-reader, though.
It will big once Ipad release, just look what happend to Iphone.
@techlord
It will big once Ipad release?
Will it blend once Ipad release too?
@techlord
What did iphone do exactly? Because it didn't really make the phone market bigger.
@max1001 you outter of there for that comment the iphone has changed the lives, and communication period. he has people grand parents using a phone i would have said smart phone or pda but thats not what the iphone is it falls in the own category . and we will see the ipad do the same trust me!!
@max1001
Iphone revolution the cellphone industry, before no one paid attention to big screen and touch screen, now everyone one multi touch and big screen.
@techlord All your iPhone are belong to us.
@techlord : That trend was already under way. The LG Prada was out before the iPhone. In fact the whole thing started a few years earlier with a phone named "neonode". It was way ahead of its time and ppl didn't get the whole "big screen and no buttons" until years later.
@max1001 It showed phone makers that interfaces didn't have to be painfully bad on phones.
Too many ereaders. Hard to distinguish the good from the bad.
FAIL!
How can they say that with a straight face and continue to make/sell netbooks.
I read shit for free on the internet.
I read books for free from the Library.
Ebooks have no place in my world.
@ChazClout
Engadget, please change the headline of this article to:
Acer tables e-reader plans, says e-books have no place in ChazClout's world
@Luke
You made me LOL. Have some uprank.
@ChazClout
You're cheap. That's OK. It's just good to be aware lots of people will spend money on content if the conditions are right. It has to be easy to pay, good selection, and mostly seamless from a UI perspective.
Thank you Acer. Like I've said so many times on here before, there are way to many E-Readers out there and it makes it impossible for the consumer to decide what one to buy. So what do they do? They buy a Kindle or Nook.
why doesnt acer work with pixel qi to make real tablet with pixel qi screen? that would be perfect netbook + ereader.
There is a market for it, just no one has made a decent released product, ipad its our best bet but now that they have taking the ebooks serious, everyone else will just be beating a dead horse. I don't understand these other companies you just don't get it . you know no one wants a black & white ereader or something that don't have built in wireless but yet and still there make the product wasting millions. I guess its a tax right off lol!!!!
@sketchkid23 Most heavy readers don't mind the black and white. Which is due to the fact that the majority of books have no color other than the book cover.
@kabloink TRUE!!!! BUT!!! magazine don't see everyone is saying books books a ereader should be universal and able to handel book, textbooks, magazines, and newpapers its needs to be a new medium
@sketchkid23 The iPad has color, but so did the other PDAs that people used to use BEFORE e-ink came out and they switched AWAY from that because reading books on an LCD screen is not a pleasant experience. E-ink was invented because no one wants to read on an LCD screen. I guess the creators of e-ink could have saved themselves the trouble and just hired Steve Jobs to tell people, with a straight face, that an e-reader can have an LCD screen. They probably didn't realize people would fall for that.
Color is useful for magazines and stuff, but wait until next year when there will be real e-book screens with it (mirasol, pixel qi, etc).
6 inch ipad with 4 gb storage, browser, wifi and priced at $199 would be a game changer in the ereader category....in my opinion. Perhaps a reader version with lower end graphics and improved battery.
@jaffreywali I don't think the iPad will have much success as an e-reader as long as it is using LCD, which is not good for long-term reading. The iPad might be a good way to read the newspaper, but not a book. If they made an iPad with pixel qi or something, then they would have a more compelling e-reader. But since it only has LCD, Apple would have to pay ME at least the price of an iPad to use it to read books.
Part of the reason is probably also because eBooks are probably way more beneficial to the publishers and retailers than the hardware manufacturers. You think Amazon made the kindle because they wanted to get into the hardware business? Probably not. They probably just wanted to sell a lot of non-lendable non-resellable books.
@MrPointedHelix The lendability of kindle books can actually be better in some situations than with normal books. For instance, as a book collector, the last thing I want is to let everyone else get my books messy by reading them while eating and other ghastly things people do to books. So I let my family share my kindle account (via other kindles, iphones, and PCs) and now it's the Kindle books that I end up sharing more.