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Wednesday, April 8, 2009

Electronic Reader Specifically Designed for Newspapers and Magazines? Yes!

Plastic Logic is getting closer to what I want in a digital / electronic reader ("e-reader"). It is developing an e-reader made specifically for newspapers and magazines.

A March 31 story in The New York Observer reports that Plastic Logic's product-in-development will have a 8.5 by 10.7 inch display, which is significantly larger than the Kindle screen. The product will be thin, lightweight, and have a flexible screen. Plastic Logic plans to release its e-reader by 2010.

For consumers, purchasing an e-reader designed for use with periodicals makes more sense than purchasing one for designed primarily for reading books. Importantly, an e-reader for books does not provide any immediate benefit over traditional books for folks reading for pleasure and at their leisure. Further, most books have a life well beyond the first reader, they are read again, passed on to friends, donated to the library book drive and so on.

In contrast, delivering the news electronically, in a large, funky, and flexible format that is not paper, sounds ideal. New editions of newspapers and magazines arrive daily and then must be disposed of daily when the content is no longer timely. None of that with an e-reader: No papers and magazines cluttering up the house, no need to recycle, no need to cancel the paper when on vacation or call to report a missed delivery. In other words, an e-reader for The New Yorker, and The New York Times and other papers, sounds like an easier way to get great writing and timely news and analysis in a better format. Bring it on!


(Via Bookninja)

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