iRex DR800 to be introduced in Europe soon

[Mr. Goodbar]

I'm curious what a Kindle DX international costs in Europe? Is it the same as the US price plus VAT or something different. I can't see Irex being very successful with a $600 device if the Kindle DX is only going to be ~$500 with wireless.

[Sweetpea]

Originally Posted by wallcraft

Worse than that, the DR800S is $600 but the DR800SG (with free AT&T OTA downloads from B&N) is ~$400. The 3G is almost useless, but I guess it is worth getting for a $200 discount.

Where did you find that? Because the last news I read about the DR800SG is that it was indefinitely delayed...

[Sweetpea]

Originally Posted by Mr. Goodbar

I'm curious what a Kindle DX international costs in Europe? Is it the same as the US price plus VAT or something different. I can't see Irex being very successful with a $600 device if the Kindle DX is only going to be ~$500 with wireless.

KindleDX isn't touch screen, Irex DR800 is.

[wallcraft]

Originally Posted by Sweetpea

Where did you find that? Because the last news I read about the DR800SG is that it was indefinitely delayed...

It was an announced product with a definite price ($399) and I ordered one a couple of months ago from Best Buy for $450 (and iRex said at the time that the $399 price was still good for the base system). My order was automatically cancelled when the device failed to appear within a month.

I can't recall ever seeing a demo of the 3G capability, so perhaps the US device was an elaborate practical joke on iRex's part.

[badbob001]

Originally Posted by wallcraft

Worse than that, the DR800S is $600 but the DR800SG (with free AT&T OTA downloads from B&N) is ~$400. The 3G is almost useless, but I guess it is worth getting for a $200 discount.

Good catch with the slight change in name (DR800SG vs DR800S). I really have no idea what IREX is thinking in terms of pricing unless the original $400-$450 was a total lie. Did they get a cut-back from the estores to subsidize the price... which has to be enough to subsidize the wireless charges and then some.

What is silly is that they don't even replace the 3G with Wifi. I guess they don't think much of the $500 devices with even larger screens (Kindle DX, Edge) and want to be up there with the Que ($650 for non-3G version but with wifi + bluetooth).

[mgmueller]

Originally Posted by wdejager

According to the Dutch website eReaders.nl, the DR800 from iRex Technologies will be available for sale in Europe from January 18th. The 3G option will be disabled though, since it was very difficult to negotiate deals with the wireless network operators in the various European member states, according to iRex.

3G option: I really don't get it.
Why can't it be solved as with mobile phones?
Okay, I get it - the market for readers is way smaller than the market for mobile phones. Less interest, smaller players. But still...

Option 1:
You could buy your reader and close a contract with a provider of your choice.
You choose the package you need, i. e. price bound to traffic.
No risk for the provider and you're in control of your costs.

Option 2:
I've got a flatrate with T-Mobile for my iPhone. I'm using a twincard in my UMTS-stick without any additional charges.
Why can't I just pop this into my reader? Traffic certainly would be less than with my UMTS stick.

Option 3:
Why are there country versions of readers anyway? (Starting with Kindle US, then moving to Kindle international). Aren't quadband (or whatever it's called) phones common nowadays? Then Sony, Amazon and the others could produce a single unit from the start (more efficient production, bigger lots = lower production costs) and later on, each country could choose its solution/provider/traffic...

Option 4:
Why don't they at least integrate WiFi in parallel?
Or as an add-on (BeBook for example has mentioned WiFi via SD a while ago).
Personally, I don't need 3G at all. But downloading books via WiFi instead of via USB would be quite convenient.
Looking at the prices for WiFi addons in PCs, I guess this would be an add-on for about € 50. Maybe not for everyone and maybe not for all readers (€ 50 for WiFi vs. € 200 for Sony 300 may be a bit harsh), but shouldn't be complicated to add as an option.

I probably could find 374 other options. Why is a feature, that's absolutely common as a feature for Notebooks and other gadgets that difficult to solve?

[mrscoach]

Originally Posted by wallcraft

Worse than that, the DR800S is $600 but the DR800SG (with free AT&T OTA downloads from B&N) is ~$400. The 3G is almost useless, but I guess it is worth getting for a $200 discount.

Where did you find info on the SG version? I only found the 800S on their website. For $601.44. But nothing on the 800SG. Am I missing it?

It did say shipping Monday 18th January.

[zerospinboson]

Originally Posted by Sweetpea

Show me a site where it's cheaper than $499...

Their own bloody press release isn't a reliable enough source for you? I'm really unsure why you seem to be trolling me. What do you have to prove?

[mrscoach]

Wait, what happened to pairing with Verizon? wallcraft said the SG would be cheaper and paired with AT&T. Can anyone find anything about it? Or were they mistaken?

[wallcraft]

Originally Posted by mrscoach

Wait, what happened to pairing with Verizon? wallcraft said the SG would be cheaper and paired with AT&T.

My mistake, Verizon is correct. Unfortunately, since the DR800S is $600 it seems unlikely that the DR800SG will even see the light of day for $400.

[The-eBook-Reader]

What is the deal with this company?

They said they were going to release this product in October. It's 3 months later and still no one knows what's going on. They won't even respond to inquiries about when it's supposed to be released in the US.

And what's with all the computer generated images? They sure don't look real to me. Using fake photos is just . . . weird.

And what's with all the typos on the iRex website?. I mean seriously, how unprofessional can you get.

with plenty of memory to store you ou will have all your paperwork

And I like their definition of battery life (extra comma included):

allows you to read for hours, and hours without recharging.

They can't even decide how to write their own name: sometimes it's IREX and other times it's iRex.

Sorry to complain, but this crap annoys the hell out of me.

[mgmueller]

Originally Posted by The-eBook-Reader

What is the deal with this company?

They said they were going to release this product in October. It's 3 months later and still no one knows what's going on. They won't even respond to inquiries about when it's supposed to be released in the US.

And what's with all the computer generated images? They sure don't look real to me. Using fake photos is just . . . weird.

And what's with all the typos on the iRex website?. I mean seriously, how unprofessional can you get.



And I like their definition of battery life (extra comma included):



They can't even decide how to write their own name: sometimes it's IREX and other times it's iRex.

Sorry to complain, but this crap annoys the hell out of me.

It's quite interesting to compare:
Apple (just as an example) has brillant marketing and (in my experience) mediocre products.
(iPhone sells way less units than Nokia for example, but given the market hype you'd expect a market share of 50%).
iRex on the other hand (in my experience) has great products (never seen similar features as with iRex iLiad on any other reader) but obviously no marketing at all.
Question is, what to prefer. Personally, I tend to the "big ones", so I go for Sony and Amazon readers. But still the small ones sometimes have surprisingly advanced features. For example, Jinke/Hanlin/BeBook has a phantastic OS with the widest amount of file formats. But it's partially ruined by it's cheap and "plasticky" design (again, a marketing issue of the smaller ones).

[Sweetpea]

Originally Posted by zerospinboson

Their own bloody press release isn't a reliable enough source for you? I'm really unsure why you seem to be trolling me. What do you have to prove?

Yes, but do you believe every press release? Especially if prices are mentioned? I never do, especially not prices and release dates. They tend to be veeeeery flexible. And what you implied was that you could buy it cheaper somewhere else than the Irex webstore.

It might be they wanted to offer it cheaper, together with a store or two (Best Buy and B&N). But that that deal fell through and that they will have to "pay" for it themselves, they just want to make a profit from it.

[Mr. Goodbar]

Originally Posted by mrscoach

Where did you find info on the SG version? I only found the 800S on their website. For $601.44. But nothing on the 800SG. Am I missing it?

It did say shipping Monday 18th January.

Scroll part way down this page and you'll see the SG version listed as US only.

http://irextechnologies.com/about/pr..._Reader_DR800S

[mrscoach]

Originally Posted by Mr. Goodbar

Scroll part way down this page and you'll see the SG version listed as US only.

http://irextechnologies.com/about/pr..._Reader_DR800S

Yes, I know, but it isn't in their store. That was my point. That link only takes you to that stupid DR800SG page that doesn't tell you anything. I was asking if they found anything SAYING the SG would be ~$400, other than the press release.

So far we only know the SG will be only US, not how much.