[|2eason]

The Iliad has been on the market now for over a year now. In that time, it has seen significant advances to it's software, but the limit's of it's hardware have also become apparent.

Irex have said they intend to release a new Iliad, one that differs from the current Iliad only slightly. It will have a bigger battery and there may be some cosmetic changes.

I've have to say though, that it sounds like a really dumb idea. Why put all those resources and man hours into developing 'a slightly better' Iliad, when instead they could be building a proper successor to it.

Why not tackle to lack of sleep mode, why not upgrade to Vizplex and get rid of the travel hub in favour or internal ports. There are lot's of things that could be done, so why are Irex going for such half measures?

In the time it takes them to switch over production to the Iliad V1.1; the Kindle will be out, the Bookeen too and Hanlins V9 might be in a position to directly compete with the Iliad. And, the development time wasted on the V1.1 might mean that the Iliad v2 will be released when Sony has it's own 8" on the market. It might be that even more 'big name' manufacturers will have devices on the market (I'm thinking Fujitsu here).

Currently, Irex make the most capable E-Ink device available, but I don't think that will last long. IMO, they risk falling behind the market if they take such small steps in development.