iRex Iliad will be available for around 400 Euro

Colin Dunstan · 02-09-2006, 07:42 AM

Now that it's getting close to its official unveiling, some more details on the iRex iLiad ER-100 e-book device are starting to trickle out.

Pricing: Daniela of DPA writes that the iLiad will cost around 400 Euro (USD $480), though she doesn't make it clear whether the price includes a subscription for the Belgian newspaper De Tijd.
Digital newspaper: According to project manager Peter Bruynseels, you can switch between a regular printed paper view, a headline view and a single-article view. Other features include access to latest financial news and interactive ads that vary according to the time of the day.
Battery: The battery is said to last for approximately 21 hours of use.
Memory: 224Mb of Flash memory is said to be sufficient for holding a month's worth of newspapers, plus 30 e-books, as well as office documents in different formats.

Also: It's a long-shot, but according to Russell J. Wilcox, chief executive of E Ink, E Ink technology with video and sound features is at most ten years off.

Related: De Tijd and iRex to launch digital paper delivery service, As E Ink approaches the performance of newspaper, Sony Reader vs. iRex Iliad e-book reader

[via W&D]

Laurens · 02-09-2006, 07:58 AM

Let's hope they have the price right. The wording is not very clear, though:

Quote:

The electronic newspaper costs an astronomical 400 euros - but those who sign up for the experiment are not being charged.

No word about if that is the actual RRP.

Bob Russell · 02-09-2006, 08:21 AM

That's pretty amazing if they can actually sell this for <$500. Very impressive if true.

Alexander Turcic · 02-09-2006, 08:24 AM

DPA is one of the world's leading news agencies, I'd be surprised if they didn't do a thorough research before. I agree with Colin and Laurens, it's not clear what the 400 Euro exactly entails.

rmeister0 · 02-09-2006, 12:06 PM

Frankly, I will be surprised if they CAN sell them at nearly $500 a pop. That's a lot of money for a single purpose device.

Colin Dunstan · 02-09-2006, 05:04 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by rmeister0

Frankly, I will be surprised if they CAN sell them at nearly $500 a pop. That's a lot of money for a single purpose device.

Well, they don't sell it for $500 but for 400 Euro. The dollar is currently crumbling.

rlauzon · 02-09-2006, 05:57 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by rmeister0

Frankly, I will be surprised if they CAN sell them at nearly $500 a pop. That's a lot of money for a single purpose device.

$500 is a good price for us early adopters (i.e. gadget freaks). But whether or not they sell them to the non-gadget people will depend grealy on the price of the eBooks.

For example, most of my O'Reilly books cost about $40 - on the average. Now, if the same eBook costs me only $20 (with no DRM, of course), then I save $20 per book.

So, $20 * 25 = $500. So I only need to have 25 eBooks to "break even". Looking at my library... counting... counting... yup. I have more than 25 books - way more than 25 books.

And that doesn't count the other benefits:
1. Much more shelf space! I just think of the benefits that the world would get if I decreased the mass of my apartment. 8-)
2. More portability. I only have so much room for so many books, so I have to pick and choose. With the iRex, I can pick and choose a much larger subset of books. It would be so cool to have all the Perl books on one device that I can easily take somewhere.

I think of how nice it would have been to have something like this when I was in college. $500 at the start of the 4 years of school, but all my books cost 50% less - plus no 200 lb backpack of books to haul to campus and back.

rumtscho · 02-14-2006, 04:35 AM

I've got a question: if it costs 400 EUR, why should I buy it? On eBay I can get a Stylistic 3400 by Fujitsu Siemens Computers for 370 EUR. It's only got a 10.4'' touch-screen TFT with 800x600 resolution but that makes 96 DPI just like my PC screen and I find that good enough for reading eBooks. I even find that 10.4''(600x800) is better than 8.1''(1024x768) becuase on the second I can only get more text if I make the font really tiny and eye-straining. The Stylistic's got WLAN too and Windows NT(!) and I can use it for more purposes than just for reading and MP3. (Besides, I've already got an mp3 player). Maybe I'm just a newbee who overlooks something really important so I'd ask you to post the reasons why this reader is better than a tablet at the same (or lower) price.

Laurens · 02-14-2006, 04:39 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by rumtscho

Maybe I'm just a newbee who overlooks something really important so I'd ask you to post the reasons why this reader is better than a tablet at the same (or lower) price.

E-ink!

Unregistered · 03-20-2006, 01:45 PM

According to an email I got from Irex today the price will be €649 + delivery. Ouch!

Snappy! · 03-20-2006, 09:06 PM

And what does eink mean to the lay man? Weight and batt life.

An ebook like iliad is light (390g, .39kg or .88lbs ) compared to a 2~3lb tablet.
It runs for a week (3hr usage / day) (~21hr) without charging compared to typical 2~3 hr batt life for a tablet.

This are the advantages.

Granted, there are other notebooks that offer longer batt life, but try countering the 21hr batt life. Other ebooks give batt life in terms of page turns, and it translates to a much longer reading experience before needing to recharge.

But at "€649 + delivery" ... *frown* ... makes me wonder if its all that worthwhile. I think majority of the users will adopt a wait-till-it-drop-prices approach than be an early-adopter. Maybe a major online or offline retailer will be able to bring it to US in volume and offer it at a lower price. Let's hope.

Alexander Turcic · 03-21-2006, 04:48 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Unregistered

According to an email I got from Irex today the price will be €649 + delivery. Ouch!

Kinda interesting, my contact from iRex told me, I quote "The price of the iLiad will be EURO 549,00, inclusive VAT, exclusive transport costs." Looks like they are still deciding upon the final pricing.

CommanderROR · 03-22-2006, 03:16 AM

I'm not sure...but i get the suspicion that this is some kind of USD/EUR mixup...if you take the 540Euro and the 650$ it just about maches up with current conversion rates...

Alexander Turcic · 03-22-2006, 07:00 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by CommanderROR

I'm not sure...but i get the suspicion that this is some kind of USD/EUR mixup...if you take the 540Euro and the 650$ it just about maches up with current conversion rates...

I think you are right. It should be save to say that from what we currently know, the iRex will cost

549,00€ which - at today's conversion rate of 1.213 $/€ - equals $666.

luag · 03-22-2006, 10:14 AM

looks evil

lol

02-09-2006, 07:42 AM	#1
Colin Dunstan Is papyrophobic! Posts: 1,926 Karma: 1009999 Join Date: Aug 2003 Location: USA Device: Dell Axim	iRex Iliad will be available for around 400 Euro Now that it's getting close to its official unveiling, some more details on the iRex iLiad ER-100 e-book device are starting to trickle out. Pricing: Daniela of DPA writes that the iLiad will cost around 400 Euro (USD $480), though she doesn't make it clear whether the price includes a subscription for the Belgian newspaper De Tijd. Digital newspaper: According to project manager Peter Bruynseels, you can switch between a regular printed paper view, a headline view and a single-article view. Other features include access to latest financial news and interactive ads that vary according to the time of the day. Battery: The battery is said to last for approximately 21 hours of use. Memory: 224Mb of Flash memory is said to be sufficient for holding a month's worth of newspapers, plus 30 e-books, as well as office documents in different formats. Also: It's a long-shot, but according to Russell J. Wilcox, chief executive of E Ink, E Ink technology with video and sound features is at most ten years off. Related: De Tijd and iRex to launch digital paper delivery service, As E Ink approaches the performance of newspaper, Sony Reader vs. iRex Iliad e-book reader [via W&D]

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02-09-2006, 08:21 AM	#3
Bob Russell Recovering Gadget Addict Posts: 5,381 Karma: 676161 Join Date: May 2004 Location: Pittsburgh, PA Device: iPad	That's pretty amazing if they can actually sell this for <$500. Very impressive if true.

02-09-2006, 08:24 AM	#4
Alexander Turcic Fully Converged Posts: 18,163 Karma: 14021202 Join Date: Oct 2002 Location: Switzerland Device: Too many to count here.	DPA is one of the world's leading news agencies, I'd be surprised if they didn't do a thorough research before. I agree with Colin and Laurens, it's not clear what the 400 Euro exactly entails.

02-09-2006, 12:06 PM	#5
rmeister0 Addict Posts: 270 Karma: 298 Join Date: Mar 2005	Frankly, I will be surprised if they CAN sell them at nearly $500 a pop. That's a lot of money for a single purpose device.

02-14-2006, 04:35 AM	#8
rumtscho Junior Member Posts: 3 Karma: 10 Join Date: Jan 2006	I've got a question: if it costs 400 EUR, why should I buy it? On eBay I can get a Stylistic 3400 by Fujitsu Siemens Computers for 370 EUR. It's only got a 10.4'' touch-screen TFT with 800x600 resolution but that makes 96 DPI just like my PC screen and I find that good enough for reading eBooks. I even find that 10.4''(600x800) is better than 8.1''(1024x768) becuase on the second I can only get more text if I make the font really tiny and eye-straining. The Stylistic's got WLAN too and Windows NT(!) and I can use it for more purposes than just for reading and MP3. (Besides, I've already got an mp3 player). Maybe I'm just a newbee who overlooks something really important so I'd ask you to post the reasons why this reader is better than a tablet at the same (or lower) price.

03-20-2006, 01:45 PM	#10
Unregistered Nameless Being	According to an email I got from Irex today the price will be €649 + delivery. Ouch!

03-20-2006, 09:06 PM	#11
Snappy! Addict Posts: 260 Karma: 4256 Join Date: Feb 2006 Device: SHARP Zaurus C1000	And what does eink mean to the lay man? Weight and batt life. An ebook like iliad is light (390g, .39kg or .88lbs ) compared to a 2~3lb tablet. It runs for a week (3hr usage / day) (~21hr) without charging compared to typical 2~3 hr batt life for a tablet. This are the advantages. Granted, there are other notebooks that offer longer batt life, but try countering the 21hr batt life. Other ebooks give batt life in terms of page turns, and it translates to a much longer reading experience before needing to recharge. But at "€649 + delivery" ... frown ... makes me wonder if its all that worthwhile. I think majority of the users will adopt a wait-till-it-drop-prices approach than be an early-adopter. Maybe a major online or offline retailer will be able to bring it to US in volume and offer it at a lower price. Let's hope.

03-22-2006, 03:16 AM	#13
CommanderROR eink fanatic Posts: 2,022 Karma: 4924 Join Date: Mar 2006 Location: Germany Device: STAReBOOK, iRex Iliad, Sony 505, Kindle 2	I'm not sure...but i get the suspicion that this is some kind of USD/EUR mixup...if you take the 540Euro and the 650$ it just about maches up with current conversion rates...

03-22-2006, 10:14 AM	#15
luag Zealot Posts: 144 Karma: 30 Join Date: Feb 2006 Location: Jakarta, Indonesia Device: Onyx Boox 60	looks evil lol

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