Junto a éste, pondrán en la calle un modelo más económico de 5"... que yo creo que está en los límites de lo aceptable en 2008, si llega. Finalmente, para otoño pretenden sacar un dispositivo de 9,8", con todo lo anterior (wifi, bt, touchscreen) y una pedazo de resolución de 1200 x 825, destinada para los profesionales que necesitan leer grandes cantidades de documentación en A4
Según comentan en teleread,While Wall Streeters talk about Amazon dominating the e-book market, who says other retailers are asleep?
Suppose that giants such as Walmart and Costco can sell e-reader hardware—and offer branded e-stores, with tens of thousands of books that shoppers can download wirelessly to Astak machines. What if one model didn’t just hit the stores in October, but also offered a rugged, 9.7-inch flexible screen, started out at maybe $589, and possibly dropped to as little as $450 after three-six months?
Those are among the tantalizing possibilities that Bob Barry, Astak business development executive for North America, mentioned just now in a TeleRead interview. Major technical and business questions abound, and he is
simply sketching out optimistic scenarios. For those of us who fear an Amazon e-book monopoly, however, and who are not privy to Sony’s plans or Apple’s possible ones, or those of other competitors such as Cybook or iRex, it’s good to know that competitive Astak alternatives may exist as well—especially with talks continuing between Bob and giants such as Walmart and Costco.
Son buenas noticias, aunque siguen el patrón habitual y que a mí me parece incorrecto: anuncio mi producto con X semanas, genero expectativas con una bajada de precio que finalmente no es tal. Aunque cumplo con mi objetivo de capturar la atención temporalmente, gestiono muy mal las expectativas de los interesados quienes, al conocer el precio real, van a minusvalorar el producto. Si finalmente logran poner en marcha junto a walmart una competencia real a amazon respecto a los e-books, será una doble buena noticia, no sólo por evitar el peligro de monopolio sino porque sería una experiencia mucho más transplantable a España
Ahora, ¿He leido bien? ¿Pantalla flexible? ¿Fle-xi-ble?
–Astak is delaying the 9.7-inch model until around October, several months later than planned, and now envisions starting out at, say, $588—with possible price declines to $450 in three-six months. Because of concerns over cracked screens at that size, Prime View International might make flexible screen technology available. No definite commitment. Durability issues exist with the rigid displays at that size; even a little twisting of case could be lethal—hence the investigation into the flexi approach. I myself think Astak would be wise to delay the larger unit even longer if need be. As Bob has pointed out, imagine moving 400,000 e-book readers and then finding you haven’t solved all the problems. The model in the photo is simply an early prototype. By far, it is the one drawing the most interest from dozens of people writing Astak daily.Ojo, en ningún momento se ha hablado de en-rro-lla-ble, sino en alguna solución realista al problema que plantean las pantallas rígidas, en peligro si se las manipula con rudeza.
Finalmente, dan una vez más en un clavo cada vez más evidente: los lectores de ebooks no son susceptibles hoy por hoy de convertirse en producto de consumo masivo si no van acompañados de la oferta adecuada de e-books
–Both Walmart and Costco want full solutions—e-book-stores, not just hardware. The way it looks now, Astak will start out with its own store in the summer, learn, then provide stores for Walmart and Costco to offer with their brands, under their domains. Possible sources of books could be Ingram or Overdrive.
En la cafetería de mi universidad he coincidido con un comercial que estaba tratando pedidos con la encargada. Como podéis ver, trabajaba con un ultraportátil. Concretamente, un Psion FLYBOOK de hace algunos años que corría windows CE.
