It seems that Irex's dealers ( or at least an Italian one ) thought the same as me:
Good technology, bad management that dumped their existing customers to go for The Next Big Thing. And failed.
May I just quote from
http://forum.irexnet.com ( their users' forum ) on January 11th after the DR800 news ?:
"
I think Irex have been stupid, but this makes me sad.
An Irex survival strategy:
Revamp the Iliad, quickly bring out a 2.1 version; possibly ( but not necessarily ) tweaked hardware; don't overstate what it can do, just a "Touchscreen Wifi Ereader"; Totally Open Source; fund one developer to work on apps and coordinate and support any third-party developers who want to help ( there are about 5 still semi-active, I believe... ); concentrate first on power saving, then on anything that makes the reading experience better, especially for large docs. ( 3G via the CF slot ?!)
Then, soon, an Iliad 3.0, just a bit more tweaked, also totally Open Source; possibly plug-in 3G.
Evolution not stuttering revolution; Using the new publicity around Ereaders to sell a device that is already out there; Exploiting a niche, not trying to fight the (really) big boys on their turf.
"