E-reader manufacturer iRex makes new start

[Innobrain]

Great news today in The Dutch daily newspaper:


De Nederlandse e-readerfabrikant iRex Technologies maakt een doorstart. Onder leiding van oprichter Hans Brons wil het bedrijf vanaf 1 september verder onder de naam IRX Innovations.

De nieuwe onderneming zal zich niet meer richten op de consumentenmarkt. De zakelijke markt en verkoop van licenties van de eigen technologie moeten voortaan geld in het laatje brengen, zo zei Brons woensdag.

Het Eindhovense bedrijf iRex, een spin-off van Philips, ging eind juni failliet nadat een avontuur op de Amerikaanse markt was mislukt. De onderneming hoopte in navolging van Amazon en Sony de Amerikaanse lezer voor zich te winnen, maar kwam te laat en met te dure digitale leesplankjes. Negen jaar ondernemen met e-readers leverde een schuldenlast van meer dan €10 mln op.

'Financiering gezond'

Brons zegt dat IRX Innovations nu op ‘een gezonde manier’ is gefinancierd, zonder details te geven. Bestaande producten zullen op de zakelijke markt worden ingezet. Alle 24 werknemers van iRex in Eindhoven gaan mee naar het nieuwe bedrijf.

In Google English:

The Dutch e-reader manufacturer iRex Technologies makes a new start. Led by founder Hans Brons, the company wants from September 1 under the name IRX Innovations.

The new company will no longer focus on the consumer market. The business market and sell licenses of proprietary technology must now bring in money, said Wednesday Bronze.

The Eindhoven iRex company as a spin-off of Philips, went bankrupt in June after a final adventure in the American market had failed. The company hoped the lines of Amazon and Sony reader for the U.S. to win, but came too late and too expensive digital reading boards. Nine years with corporate e-readers made an indebtedness of more than € 10 mln.

"Financing health '

Bronze says IRX Innovations now "a healthy way" has been financed without details. Existing products will be deployed at the business market. All 24 employees in Eindhoven iRex go along to the new company.

[TGS]

Good news for the employees - but I wonder what it means for customers of IREX in terms of warranties?

[Iñigo]

Good news!

Congratulations IRX!

[Gwaihir]

http://www.computable.nl/artikel/ict...novations.html

Interesting extra detail: IRX Innovations now has an agreement with an Asian company, probably for the sale of certain parts of the business. Stassen confirms the deal, but gives no details. He said however that IRX Innovations is going to focus on the production of business e-readers.

[yacoob]

Yup, I'm pretty much interested about warranties. I've tried to register at old irex technologies site for a support account, but I got "Your account has been disabled. You are not permitted to log in.".

[Shaggy]

Warranties and finishing the 2.0 firmware would be my main interests.

It sounds like the company is trying to focus back on what their business plan was several years ago, before they got caught up in the consumer market. Similar to back when most of the first gen devices (Sony, Kindle, etc) were using hardware licensed from iRex... back before they were selling iLiads to end users. That's probably a good position for them to get themselves in to. It plays better towards the core capabilities of the company, and gets them away from marketing/support/etc that they had ongoing problems with.

[HansTWN]

Concentrating on the business end sure makes sense considering that the DR1000S and Plastic Logic VaporX have been such runaway successes --- oh wait!

[zerospinboson]

But what does "focussing on the business market" mean for us poor retailer customers? Will we no longer be allowed to buy their products? (And how is this going to be a miracle fix considering the fact that the firmware [and the fw update process] will still be the same?)

[penartur]

But what does "focussing on the business market" mean for us poor retailer customers? Will we no longer be allowed to buy their products?

Ну они до DR800 вроде именно по такой модели и работали - и ничего, перепадали как-то iliad-ы простым пользователям

[Aegis]

Originally Posted by HansTWN

Concentrating on the business end sure makes sense considering that the DR1000S and Plastic Logic VaporX have been such runaway successes --- oh wait!

Is it that hard to be a little happy about your renewed waranty and support? The DR800S(G) will still be supported. I, on the other hand, am just lucky to have a DR1000 (which they won't support anymore) and can only hope the firmwares will still be compatible without too much hacking.

I'm glad they get a new start! Can't wait to see the new ideas and devices that will come from this.

[penartur]

Is it that hard to be a little happy about your renewed waranty and support?

Did they said anything about renewed warranty?

[owl123]

Originally Posted by Aegis

I, on the other hand, am just lucky to have a DR1000 (which they won't support anymore)

Why would you say that? Isn't DR1000 their e-reader for business market?

[Groen]

Originally Posted by Aegis

Is it that hard to be a little happy about your renewed waranty and support?

I don't think they mentioned anything about renewing waranty. I doubt they will renew waranty. If they do so, that will be purely a gesture of courtesy to bind existing customers.

Originally Posted by Aegis

The DR800S(G) will still be supported. I, on the other hand, am just lucky to have a DR1000 (which they won't support anymore) and can only hope the firmwares will still be compatible without too much hacking.

I did not read any communication that was specific about what products would be supported in the future. If I have to make a guess, I would say it is the DR1000 they will be supporting, as the DR1000 was geared towards business use, whereas the DR800 was their attempt to enter the consumer market.

Just my 2 cents.

Mark

[Aegis]

De productlijn van de DR800 zal worden overgenomen door het nieuwe IRX Innovations en worden voortgezet. Dit betekent dat ze voor dit apparaat ook nog service zullen en kunnen verlenen.

De productlijnen van de andere producten zullen niet overgenomen worden en hardware-technische ondersteuning zal dan niet meer geboden worden. Mochten de problemen softwarematig van aard zijn, dan kan er wellicht nog wel geholpen worden.

It states that the DR800 will be continued and that the device will still be serviced. The DR800 is the ONLY product the will continue.
So in short: people with DR1000S's (like myself) are screwed and can only hope IRX will still make the firmware-updates compatible.

I hope this answers the previous questions and remarks. It's wise to follow the Irex-thread in the news-section for more updates.

[zerospinboson]

Originally Posted by Aegis

It states that the DR800 will be continued and that the device will still be serviced. The DR800 is the ONLY product the will continue.
So in short: people with DR1000S's (like myself) are screwed and can only hope IRX will still make the firmware-updates compatible.

I hope this answers the previous questions and remarks. It's wise to follow the Irex-thread in the news-section for more updates.

Where did you find this information? I can't google it.