Should we mourn for Irex?

[physics@war]

Good bye old friend! I still have my broken device hold up by iRex. I guess I should mourn for iRex's bankruptcy.

[AnemicOak]

Last I heard the Dutch government was going to help them out.

[TGS]

Here's a translation of the latest I can find - looks fairly hopeful

[yacoob]

Any details, AnemicOak? I got an impression that the regional investment agency refused their call, and that's one of the reasons they've declared bankruptcy.

[kacir]

I used to keep close eye on iRex and their products.
To me, their products were waaaay overpriced.
Their first product failed miserably to deliver promised key features, such as battery life. And their Public Relation handling of the resulting situation was pathetic.

Yet, I think we should deeply mourn their demise.
They moved the entire e-ink reader industry forward.
They were pioneers conquering and charting the unknown land of e-ink readers.

Also, I fear that if they fail other companies might be more reluctant to come with new, revolutionary ebook readers.

Originally Posted by TGS

Here's a translation of the latest I can find - looks fairly hopeful

i'm sorry, but the article says no more then they hope to know more before the end of the month of who's gonna take them over.
i do hope somebody does take them over. i'm very pleased with the DR800SG, even if i can't use the 3g in Europe.

i do agree that there devices are way overpriced and that might be part of the reason why they are bankrupt.

[trekchick]

I don't know if I'm in mourning, but I am sad. I've used several different eInk devices in recent years, and the DR800 is, by far, my favorite hardware. The size is perfect and the technical capabilities are outstanding. Sadly, the software hasn't quite taken advantage of the device's full potential.

Worry about being wedded to an unsupported device prompted my purchase of the Sony Daily Edition (It doesn't impress me; I'll probably sell it.) and the new Graphite Kindle DX (I generally like it, although I'm annoyed by it's failure to support PDF Table of Contents, and it's a larger device than I'd prefer to carry about).

I realize that the European prices were shockingly high, but the US price was in line with other e-Ink readers. The DR800 met scathing reviews upon launch, and received literally no good press or marketing momentum. The 2.0 (RC 3) firmware remedies most of the complaints, but it's too little, too late. I think that the device could have taken the US market by storm, if only it had been fully featured at launch and had some kind of marketing support.

[catharsis]

i also agree that the devices are overpriced (at least in Europe), but maybe it's because all their revenue comes from selling devices. i suppose amazon and b&n can afford to sell cheap devices because the bulk of their revenue comes from book sales. i also suppose it's very hard now for companies which sell only devices (is que ever coming? any news about the asus dr-900?), especially because of the ipad and the price drops for kindle and nook.

[joblack]

I don't understand the constant complaining about Irex and the 'missing features'.

I wrecked my Iliad V2 one time (cracked the display) but it was my fault. I paid 250 Euro for a new one and now I'm more cautious.

The battery lifetime of the the Iliad 2 was always over 10 hours. Even after three years the battery life hasn been very good. Of course more is better but be honest. Did you ever read over 10 hours in a row?

I want to buy a Irex 1000S because of it's great display size. If iRex finally closes I have to buy a Kindle DX graphite. And that means, no FBReader, no chms, no djvus, no custom programs.

And yes Irex hardware is expensive but I have got so much content out of my Iliad (waiting for the bus, train, doctor, ...) over the three years I wouldn't want to miss these devices.

The only reader which would be more interesting would be the skiff reader - but that was killed by the Australian Billionaire .

[stonehat]

I think it is generally agreed that Irex went bankrupt because their management took a chance, borrowed money to get into the US market with a new device, then failed to get into that market on time to pay back the loans.

If, instead of dumping their original product ( along with customer and third-party goodwill ), Irex had evolved it, we could now be celebrating the release of the Iliad Mark 7, running the best software around, supplied by an active open source community, the envy of Kindle and Nook readers everywhere.

[Shaggy]

Originally Posted by catharsis

i also agree that the devices are overpriced (at least in Europe), but maybe it's because all their revenue comes from selling devices. i suppose amazon and b&n can afford to sell cheap devices because the bulk of their revenue comes from book sales.

Yes, plus Amazon, Sony... all have revenue from markets that have nothing to do with eBooks. A small company with a single product line has very little margin for error.

[Shaggy]

Originally Posted by stonehat

If, instead of dumping their original product ( along with customer and third-party goodwill ), Irex had evolved it, we could now be celebrating the release of the Iliad Mark 7, running the best software around, supplied by an active open source community, the envy of Kindle and Nook readers everywhere.

DR800 = iLiad v3

The main problem is that the hardware evolved enough that they were not firmware compatible, and iRex isn't big enough to maintain two completely different sets of firmware.

[abeaty]

Originally Posted by physics@war

Good bye old friend! I still have my broken device hold up by iRex. I guess I should mourn for iRex's bankruptcy.

It will be a miracle if iRex comes out of bankruptcy and makes it as a business. They will be competing in a market:

1) with an iPad that is cheaper than all of their eReaders
2) where the closest competitors are selling at a fraction of the cost
3) where their competitors can make money selling the eBooks so can take a loss on the hardware
4) where the latest eInk screens are only available to Sony and Amazon for the first 3-6 months (I just read this on the internet so it may not be true).

They are going to have to figure out their business plan and do it fast.

[Solicitous]

Originally Posted by abeaty

It will be a miracle if iRex comes out of bankruptcy and makes it as a business. They will be competing in a market:

1) with an iPad that is cheaper than all of their eReaders
2) where the closest competitors are selling at a fraction of the cost
3) where their competitors can make money selling the eBooks so can take a loss on the hardware
4) where the latest eInk screens are only available to Sony and Amazon for the first 3-6 months (I just read this on the internet so it may not be true).

They are going to have to figure out their business plan and do it fast.

I honestly think that a market that companies should start to focus on is the academic/education market. In my view a reader that can;

- display A4 PDFs (9.7" screen would suffice).
- ability to add annotations.
- ability to export annotations to a PC.
- ability to have open more than one file at a time and allow switching between.

There may be some other aspects required but they are a basis. Some current 6" readers do perform some of those functions, but PDF is not good on a 6", especially with academic journals which are generally multi-columned (pdf reflow does not work). I for one would rather an ereader for all my lecture notes for lectures, save printing 500+ pages a semester. A laptop isn't suitable because (a) reading journals on LCD strains eyes for prolonged periods of time, (b) battery life during lectures is an issue.

Hopefully something will be suitable within 12 months before I start my masters. As much as I don't like Apple the iPad seems the best solution at present (there are Android tablets but they are either real expensive or produced by generic Chinese companies with little information and usually Android 1.5 and no clear idea if able to upgrade to 2.2).

[HansTWN]

Originally Posted by abeaty

It will be a miracle if iRex comes out of bankruptcy and makes it as a business. They will be competing in a market:

1) with an iPad that is cheaper than all of their eReaders
2) where the closest competitors are selling at a fraction of the cost
3) where their competitors can make money selling the eBooks so can take a loss on the hardware
4) where the latest eInk screens are only available to Sony and Amazon for the first 3-6 months (I just read this on the internet so it may not be true).

They are going to have to figure out their business plan and do it fast.

Not all of that is quite true. The Irex 800 was USD 399.-. Closest competitor is the new Kindle DXG at 389.-. Yes, the Kindle has a bigger screen, but the Irex has a Wacom touch screen and better functionality.

Under normal circumstances they could have lowered the price to 350 and would have been very competitive. Their problem is that they didn't have any marketing -- that is where they were behind Amazon and Sony (which has better relationships with retailers, obviously). So the better mousetrap can't win in this case.

But I do believe that point 4 is (almost correct). Amazon does get the new screens earlier then anybody else. But not Sony.