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A faster processor from chip maker Freescale could help cut down the cost of components for e-readers, paving the way to a $150 device later this year.

Freescale’s latest system-on-chip, called the i.MX508, integrates an ARM Cortex A8 processor with a display controller from E Ink. It will have twice the performance at a significantly lower cost, Freescale claims.

“This is the first chip that has been designed just for e-readers,” says Glen Burchers, director of marketing at Freescale. “Earlier, we had general-purpose processors being used in e-readers so they were not completely optimized.”

From the Kindle to the Sony Reader, Freescale’s chips power most e-readers today. The chipmaker claims to have nearly 90 percent of the market share among the burgeoning e-reader market. Research firm Forrester estimates 3 million e-readers were sold last year and sales are expected to double this year.

But the high cost of e-readers has kept many consumers from rushing to stores to get the device. An Amazon Kindle costs $260, which is what most such readers cost. The cheapest e-reader currently on the market, from Sony, is still $200. And that doesn’t include the price of buying e-books. Another limiting factor has been kludgy user interfaces and displays that are slow to turn from one page to the next, which has turned off some potential users.

Freescale’s latest chip has an ARM core running at 800MHz and can render electronic ink pages at almost twice the speed of earlier e-reader processors, the company says. This results in faster page turns and a more snappy feel to the device.

“Today page flips on a Kindle are in the range of 1.5 to 2 seconds, while the Nook (which uses a processor from Samsung) it can take up to 3 seconds for a page turn,” Burchers says. “With our new processors, that can be cut down to about half a second.”

In Wired’s testing, page turns on the current-model Kindle took about half a second while the Nook took about one second.

The increased processing capability also gives e-reader makers greater computing power so they can add better touch capability and run more apps on the device, says Freescale.

For consumers, all this could come with some cost savings. Freescale’s chip could reduce the overall cost of materials because the chip itself will cost about $10 when ordered in large volumes (greater than 250,000 units). Overall, this could reduce the price of an e-reader by at least $30-$50. The most expensive component in an e-reader, however, remains the E Ink black-and-white display.

E-readers based on the new Freescale processor are expected to be available in the third quarter of the year.

See Also:

• Plastic Logic Aims New Que E-Reader at Business Users
• Slim, Large Screen E-Reader Skiff to Debut on Sprint
• Dual-Screen Device Combines E-Reader, Netbook
• 5 Things That Will Make E-Readers Better in 2010
• Why E-Books Are Stuck in a Black-and-White World
• Qualcomm Aims to Bring Color, Video to E-Readers

Photo: Jon Snyder/Wired.com

Nintendo announced that its latest gadget, the DSi XL, will be useful for more than just chasing around in a Mario Kart. You’ll also be able to read books on it.

Bloomberg reports that the first DSi XL e-book offering will be a cartridge containing 100 public domain books, including classics such as Twain and Shakespeare. This means Nintendo is opting for its traditional, cartridge-oriented approach versus launching an online bookstore.

The $190 device, which is basically a blown-up version of its predecessor, DSi, features two 4.2-inch screens, folds like a book, and is about the size of a paperback. All of which could make it an attractive platform for reading (though it’s not the only e-reading device to feature two screens).

Nintendo has sold roughly 130 million DS consoles so far (including DSi and DS Lite), and the global popularity of the DS platform might make Nintendo a serious e-book competitor. But Cammie Dunaway, the executive vice president of sales for North America told Bloomberg that’s not the immediate goal. “It’s just one more way to enjoy your device.”

The DSi XL, which has been available in Japan for months now, will launch in the U.S. on March 28.

Wired’s Chris Kohler reviewed the Nintendo DSi XL recently and concluded it’s not just about it being bigger: “The larger screen isn’t just some frivolous purchase — it’s completely awesome.”

Nintendo’s move most likely doesn’t represent an aggressive move into the e-book market. Rather, it shows the company is trying to make its gadgets more useful in new ways before a tidal wave of tablets and smartphones chips away at the audience for mobile games.

Photo by Jim Merithew for Wired.com

Qisda QD060B00 e-reader hits the FCC originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 26 Feb 2010 13:06:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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In a conference call with investors yesterday, Steve Riggio described the Nook as a great success and the company’s best selling product. The former is predictable, but the latter is kinda weird. You typically wait to have more than one own-brand product in order to describe anything as “best-selling,” but we’ll give him the benefit of the doubt and assume he’s comparing the Nook against books published under the B&N name. It’s still disappointing that, much like Amazon, Barnes and Noble refuses to issue actual sales figures. The closest we get to that is Steve’s boast that the Nook’s release has fueled a 67 percent increase in online ebook sales — an effect that would have been even greater if the company had more stock of the device to sell. In the long term, he sees the Nook as a stimulant of traffic and sales, both in its retail and online stores, and a central component of his company’s strategy. As to the iPad? Steve skirted that question by noting that B&N ebooks are also available on PC, Mac, iPhone and BlackBerry devices. Which is good to know.

Barnes and Noble CEO describes Nook as ‘single best-selling product,’ critical to success originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 24 Feb 2010 09:16:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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What’s this we hear? Is it the distant thunder of sanity emanating from Acer’s Taiwanese headquarters? The Taipei Times is reporting this morning Acer chairman Wang Jeng-tang’s announcement that his company will not be releasing an ebook reader “for now.” It was only a month ago that Jeng-tang and his crew were telling the world about the aggressive inroads they were going to make into the Amazon-dominated e-reader market, but it appears some second-guessing has been taking place in those Taipei boardrooms, which has led to the scrapping of the earlier plans. Considering the absolute glut of interchangeable E Ink devices out there, we have to agree with Acer’s perspective; you either have to come up with something unique — like the Nook, the Edge, or the Adam — or just focus your energies elsewhere. Good job on remembering that we’re more interested in seeing that mysterious ultrathin laptop than just another run of the mill 6-inch e-reader.

Acer tables e-reader plans, says market is ‘not that big’ originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 23 Feb 2010 14:42:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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