The battle for dominance in the electronic books market is far from settled as new entrants continue to jostle their way in. iRex, a Netherlands-based company, has said it will launch a new e-book reader in the U.S. later this year. The e-reader will have a 8.1-inch touchscreen, stylus-based navigation and 3G wireless connectivity.
iRex has also partnered with Barnes & Noble to integrate the latter’s e-book store into its upcoming device.
Amazon’s Kindle and the Sony Reader have helped turn e-book readers into one of the hottest consumer electronics products. In May, E Ink, which almost exclusively supplies the black-and-white displays that power most e-readers, said more than a million readers use its technology.
Big retail book stores are taking notice. Earlier this year, Borders U.K. introduced a £189 ($276) e-book reader called Elonex. The Elonex will come pre-loaded with about 1,000 books and will support both the open-source ePub and proprietary Adobe formats.
In July, Barnes & Noble launched its own e-book store and said that it will power Plastic Logic’s e-reader targeted at business users. By partnering with iRex, Barnes & Noble hopes to expand its reach.
iRex was founded in 2005 as a spin-off from Royal Phillips Electronics. The company’s name stands for ‘Interactive Reading Experience,’ CEO Hans Brons told Wired.com in an interview earlier. iRex launched an e-reader with a 10.1-inch screen last year. But the company has mostly focused on business users, says Brons.
iRex’s upcoming reader will put it in competition with the larger e-book readers such as Amazon Kindle DX and the Plastic Logic e-reader. iRex hasn’t revealed how much its e-reader will cost in the U.S.
“All 6-inch displays today use first generation technology when it comes to driving the ink particles on the electronic paper,” says Brons. “We have improved on that tech and our customers can see the difference in the brightness of the screen and contrast ratio of the display.”
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Photo: iRex DR 1000s Reader (barisione/Flickr)
