Acer expects to start selling its new LumiRead e-reader globally in July or August, chief executive Gianfranco Lanci has told reporters. He showed off the new gadget – pictured – in Beijing ahead of a public bow at this week’s Computex show in Taipei.
The LumiRead weighs about 300 grams and will have a 7-inch E Ink display, 2GB flash memory (enough to hold almost 2000 e-books) with the option to add a MicroSD card, and a qwerty keyboard.
There’s also a barcode scanner, so users can scan ISBN codes on the books to create their own wishlist or search online libraries and book stores.
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Like Amazon’s Kindle, Acer’s LumiRead will have an Internet browser and connect wirelessly using 3G or Wi-Fi. It uses the Android operating system, allied to an ARM-design chip, believed to be Qualcomm’s Snapdragon.
Also on show at Computex are three tablets from rival Taiwan maker Asustek: two large-screen tablet PC devices using Windows 7 Home operating software, and a much smaller e-reader.
The flagship is Asus’s Eee Pad EP121, which sports a 12-inch display, making it considerably bigger than the 9.7-inch Apple iPad. To the surprise of many observers, it is powered by an Intel CULV Core 2 Duo processor – most were expecting Asus to use an Intel Atom.
Users can input data via an on-screen keyboard or by typing on a keyboard that the Eee Pad docks onto.
Another Eee Pad model comes with a 10-inch touchscreen and Microsoft’s Windows Embedded Compact 7 software.
The e-reader, named the Eee Tablet, is designed for digital note-taking – using a stylus – as well as reading e-books.
Micro-Star International (MSI), a Taiwan-based maker of computers and related parts, unveiled a tablet PC called “WindPad.” The 10-inch touchscreen product runs on Windows 7 operating system and has built-in Wi-Fi and 3G wireless technology.
MSI will ship WindPad to the USA and Europe in the upcoming quarter, MSI president Joseph Hsu said. There was no mention of Australia.
