Quote:
Originally Posted by HarryT
Robert,
Can you explain, please, how we went from your statement (concerning your 6" reader) that:
to the current situation where Dale informs us that:
Is that rumour correct, or are you going to stand by your previous price estimate?
I mean no disrespect in saying this, but for months you've been raising peoples' expectations, and now we have what appears to be nothing more than "yet another Hanlin clone" at the same price point as all the others. What do you have to say to people who are certain to be disappointed by this?
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Dear Harry:
Thank you for nicely asking a question I knew would come up. It is a sore point and might as well get right to it.
When we first talked about a FIVE inch device coming out at about $200... those were the numbers we had from the factory. The factory built such a device and sold it overseas. WE here in the USA did NOT see it as competitive for the USA market. I do not want to point out problems but it was not what we wanted after learning what I did learn on MobileRead Forum.
Then... we saw what COULD be done and decided to wait and have the factory build one exact to our specs. Keep in mind this is our first and only eBook Reader and we had absolutely NO knowledge of the market at the start. The speed was not right for us so we wanted the new Epson Controller but it was not released. We wanted Adobe Digital Editions but it was not yet available. We COULD have done the easy thing... and put out a junky eBook Reader... BUT WE DID NOT! We stayed true to bringing out something good. The fuel crisis also made a mess of everything from components to transportation... and costs shot up across the board.
Meanwhile, we had an $84,000 booth at CES in Las Vegas for January 8-11. We HAD to get it last year and you cannot rescind. Faced with a booth made to show eBook Readers and no eBook Reader... we were approached by Hanlin. We were impressed with their eBook Reader. The V3 IS a fine Reader and lacked only technical and sales support in North and South America. With minor modifications we saw a quality device that could be great for this market. SO... first out is the EZ Reader which is a Hanlin V3 with our support network, our sales efforts and technical support and our blessing (as we beat hell out of it in testing and it took it all). We feel our EZ Reader is a fabulous device and I personally am buying the first unit in Electric Blue!
What this does is:
1. Give us a rock-solid device that we can fully support and we know it is good.
2. It gives us an eBook Reader to actually show and sell at CES.
3. It lets us make some modifications and it will soon be offered with WiFi and Touchscreen variations.
4. It gives us a world of experience.
5. It buys time to come out with exactly the devices from our factory to make use of the latest improvements not yet released (such as Epson Controller and a Flexi Screen).
6. We feel we failed nobody and came out with a quality device in the Hanlin that we can make better! It is light, thin, and works like a jewel. It is something we have faith in and it fits what we want to release... a smaller and lighter Reader that doesn't have the bulk of the others.
The price is NOT $200 because it is not that same device. It is a six inch and a good one... but we can keep the engineers at the factory designing our own machines with all the latest innovations.
I hope that you will ask yourself what you would have done... because I think we stood by solid ideals and feel good about this. Astak may be relatively new to eBook Readers but we do stand for quality; and this is a dynamic little device that is very hard to beat.
Robert B