Quote:
Originally Posted by HarryT
On their web site they say:
which I would interpret as meaning that they are a subsidiary company owned by Philips. I may, of course, be wrong!
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If they say that its a spin-off then it can't be a subsidiary anymore. Philips might still hold considerable equity in the venture but if it was over 50% they would have to consolidate it (therefore it wouldn't be a spin-off).
I think unless Paper Logic totally misprices as well, Irex's days are numbered. The larger kindle could possibly be a good alternative because it will be able to display PDFs better which is key in most businesses (more so than a mobi would be, people can much easier just print to PDF rather than spending days reformating into mobi) but Paper Logic will directly compete with Irex's market and, at least at this point with Irex's current slate of products, blows the Iliad and DRS whatever out of the water in looks. I'd much rather have a Paper Logic device than an Iliad (I currently have an Iliad and use it almost every day, I love it but its no Paper Logic).
I would assume that since Irex is canceling support of the Iliad they must have something new coming down the pipeline but they will need to start coming up with prices better than $800 if they want to gain any type of market share and not fall off the face of the earth (look at UMPCs, netbooks came out and now UMPCs are the ugly redheaded stepchild of electronics). There's too much competition out now for the old mantra of we are looking at the high end market because eBook readers are already the high end market, people will gravitate to whatever product has the most marketing and support and everything else will be left behind. Very few companies will ever go and buy a bunch of these to give out to employees (maybe a hospital or something like that which would be too small scale since so much of the market is fragmented) so it would be the actual people rationalizing to buy one and paying an extra $500 because something has a stylus just wont cut it to get people onboard. I'm rooting for them but I don't see them being a long term competitor in this market.