There's been a lull in e-reader news of late, but finally we have another announcement. Borders UK has partnered with Elonex International to introduce the Elonex ebook, an e-ink based e-reader with a six inch screen. The device will be available at all Borders UK brick & mortar stores and at www.borders.co.uk, according to a post at booktrade.info.
As someone living in the USA, aka the land of Kindle, it is quite interesting to see an e-reader announcement in which the new device is so heavily compared to the Sony Reader. The Elonex ebook will retail for £189 while the Sony Reader goes for £199. The Elonex ebook's battery lasts for 8,000 page turns between charges while the Sony Reader's only lasts for 7,000. Maybe I'm reading too much into this, but the tone of the article leads me to believe the Sony Reader is the 800 lb gorilla in the e-reader space in the UK. Here in the US, the Sony Reader is relatively unknown.
I also find it interesting that Borders UK claims to carry 45,000 ebooks on its web store. The US Borders website hides any ebooks it carries, if in fact it carries any at all. No wonder Amazon and the Kindle are sitting so pretty over here. I'd love to see that kind of competition.
But back to the Elonex ebook. It can store 1,000 ebooks (though an actual memory figure isn't offered) and comes pre-loaded with 100 classic titles – a nice touch. It reads ePub and PDF formats, and books can be read in landscape or portrait mode. More details can be found at Elonex's site. Elonex says the device is available now.
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