It's February 23rd, do you know where your Spring Design Alex is?

We hate to be the bearers of bad news, but it looks like the lovely Spring Design Alex has quietly missed its ship date. Back at CES the word was Febuary 22nd and, after spending a little quality time with the thing, we've been counting the days. Here we are on February 23rd and the only thing up for sale at the Spring Design website is a "coming soon" note, and we already have more of those than we know what to do with. Even more discouraging, the Borders site is still listing only Sony Readers up for sale. We've reached out to Spring Design to see what's up, so hang onto your pulp until we get a response.

[Thanks, Matthäus]

[BMills Posted Feb 23rd 2010 9:07AM]

Maybe the iPad has shaken up the confidence that Spring Design had on their price point?

[cayton Posted Feb 23rd 2010 9:15AM]

@BMills I hope so. If they lower the price $100, I would line up to buy this thing without hesitation. The current price is kind of hard to justify with netbooks and all.

[Apocalyptic 0n3 Posted Feb 23rd 2010 10:11AM]

@BMills I hope you're right. I'm itching to get an e-reader and this seems like it will be king, though the $359 pricetag is a little much for my wallet at the moment.

[ch3burashka Posted Feb 23rd 2010 9:38PM]

@BMills
...or maybe they just weren't ready? The product is cool, but I had little faith in them delivering it.

[cayton Posted Feb 23rd 2010 9:13AM]

This makes me really sad. I visited the site at least 5 times yesterday, looking for any update.

I thought the nook was an awesome design, that failed to deliver (performance, limitations on Android, etc.). Based on Engadgets hands on, it was everything the nook should have been and then some. I thought $350 was a bit much for an ereader, but I was willing to save for it, because I really think this was the best ereader I've seen to date.

Oh Spring Design, don't let me down!

[Dking7 Posted Feb 23rd 2010 9:52AM]

@cayton don't worry new once will pop up like mushrooms this year...

[scooby103 Posted Feb 23rd 2010 10:23AM]

@cayton

Performance issues?? Have you used a nook since the latest update? They have all but disappeared... The nook is a great device, and certainly a step in the right direction, when compared to Sony / Kindle.

I was looking forward to the Alex as well... but the delay caused me to look elsewhere... and I'm glad I did.

[cayton Posted Feb 23rd 2010 10:31AM]

@scooby103
All I have is second or third hand information on either device. I do know that every single hands on that I could find on the alex stated that it was snappy, or noted that it is faster than the nook. If the nook fixed that issue, more power to them.

More importantly, the ability to use any Android Marketplace app (sans voice and GPS) is a really cool feature that the nook currently doesn't have.

[Schwack Posted Feb 23rd 2010 9:38AM]

Funny. I was wondering what was up. You'd think a day or so before the launch, there would be reviews....previews...hands on accounts? But nooo.......I, too, was waiting for the release and reviews so I could finally plunk down some cashola for an e-reader.

[Rebel6381 Posted Feb 23rd 2010 10:11AM]

It's February 23rd, does anyone know where webOS 1.4 is?!?!

[MikeZ Posted Feb 23rd 2010 10:31AM]

This was the alternative to the nook where the lower display actually becomes useful, right?

[majorarcanum Posted Feb 23rd 2010 10:52AM]

Thanks for staying on top of this, Tim. I too have been visiting Spring Design's website hoping for a word of news.

[iCello Posted Feb 23rd 2010 11:06AM]

As someone above said, where's webos 1.4? And hey, I'm not even a pre or pixi user(although I might be once my iPhone 3G finally dies)

[Schwack Posted Feb 23rd 2010 11:15AM]

Webos, smeshbos. Who cares....I want to know the latest on the Alex e-reader...

[kobioshi Posted Feb 23rd 2010 11:24AM]

"We have an amazing product that will take the e-reader market by storm!" (((Enter iPad))) "CRAP! Our product sucks, lets go work at McDonald's."

[mikes63737 Posted Feb 23rd 2010 12:12PM]

That's embarrassing.

[Schwack Posted Feb 23rd 2010 12:15PM]

Highly doubt iPAD is scaring anyone...

[McCloud969 Posted Feb 23rd 2010 2:27PM]

@Schwack
it might be scaring apple investors?

[Schwack Posted Feb 23rd 2010 12:17PM]

Highly doubt iPAD is scaring anyone...

[Schwack Posted Feb 23rd 2010 12:29PM]

d'oh....double posting...I hate that.

[joelaf Posted Feb 23rd 2010 4:00PM]

Seems everyone has reset their ship dates for new products to June/July 2010. After CES, my tech hunger turned to disinterest. 6 months from announcement to (possible) launch is enough in the tech field to go from hot to discount bin. I have a feeling it will be the NEXT CES before all this crap shakes out, just in time for more delays.

[SLogik Posted Feb 23rd 2010 5:31PM]

According to this page, 10 more weeks:

http://www.natesebooknews.com/2010/02/23/alex-reader-to-ship-in-10-weeks/

I was checking all day yesterday, ready to pull the trigger on this. What concerns me less than the product, is the company. If the above is correct and it's 10 weeks, they knew that before yesterday. Why not a note on their website? Why not a press release a week earlier? I sent an email asking if it was still going to be released yesterday - no response. I'm sure they'll be more than happy to take my money, but is this a foreshadowing of what tech support will be like? if so, I'm out. If it's not 10 weeks and it's merely a few days, I may still buy but the lack of communication really has me concerned.

[jimstuy Posted Feb 23rd 2010 5:43PM]

thanks SLogik for the link... that's disappointing. I've been refreshing spring design's website for a while for any update, and it sucks that they are totally mum on why they are not going to make the promised shipping date. Now I actually wonder, whether or not the Alex will deliver also on the quality front.. seeing how Spring Design is formed on 09/2006, and for a new start up, they'd need a pretty big apps and marketing support staff here in the US to keep their market shares and their customers happy.