Cue’s cancellation a sign of increasing e-reader competition
By JIM BROOKS
Nelson County Gazette
Friday, Aug. 28, 2010 – For years we’ve heard the promises of portable electronic reader devices that would make printed books, magazines and newspapers obsolete. While that prediction will unlikely ever come to fruition, the truth remains that the market for electronic reader devices — “e-readers” — is fast developing into a cut-throat business model.
Earlier this month, Plastic Logic announced it was scuttling plans for its long-awaited Que e-reader device. The device was a large, flexible LCD-type screen which could display the full page of a newspaper or other publication.
The concept of “electronic newsprint” has been around for more than a decade. The Que reader was being watched closely by the newspaper industry as an answer to the need for an environmentally friendly digital platform that would replicate the experience of reading a newspaper.
Que was scheduled to launch earlier this year, along with a “pro” version of the device. The company accepted pre-production orders for the device for a time.
Enter the Apple iPad.
The iPad has thrown the e-reader world into chaos; not that the e-reader concept is flawed, but the original concept was for a device that would be a dedicated e-reader. With the debut of the iPad and other devices that roll so many features into a single package, the handwriting is on the wall for the standalone e-reader. Kindle, you may be the next victim.
Even the Apple iPhone and iPod Touch devices are reasonably user friendly e-readers; ask any of those users if they would drop hundreds of dollars on a Kindle e-reader.
A decade ago, we would have called the Que “vaporware” — a product that was never little more than a promise. Had Plastic Logic released Que five years ago, the whole e-reader concept would probably be a viable business model.
No so today, in the wake of new mobile computing devices. In fact, the standalone e-reader will never be more than a narrow-market niche product. The concept of a large device to view electronic newspaper pages simply flys in the face of smaller mobile devices. The challenge newspaper publishers face now is how to package what they have into formats usable to mobile readers.
Japanese electronics giant Samsung also is getting out of the e-reader business. It recently announced it will scrap continued development of the flexible “e-paper” LCD product. The company showed several e-reader products, but never marketed the devices.
LG — the provider for screens for the Apple iPad and Kindle e-reader — is moving forward with its development of new e-reader products. The company may be one of the remaining large players in the research and manufacture of the devices, so they may stand to gain marketshare as others pull back.
The decision to cancel production of Que recognizes that a mobile reader device no longer needs to look and feel like a traditional newspaper page. In the world of newspapers and journalism, we will continue to see “creative destruction” as the old business model is pounded into a new one.
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