It is quite ironic to read this from their CEO:
Quote:
|
Then last year, the DR800 - August 1 "ereader initially intended for the U.S. market - was delayed due to leakage of the FCC approval procedures, missed iRex major release just before Christmas, making a commercial success was forthcoming. This is a direct cause of the financial malaise, says Bronze.
|
If history has not been changed, the DR800S (not the US DR800SG) model was released in January 2010. Does an ereader without wireless option has to go through similar FCC procedure in Europe too? Or it doesn't matter because Europe people don't buy even for Christmas?
Anyway, whatever caused the delay cannot be undone now. Granted, the dr800 and dr1000 are still very good ereaders in the 8 inch plus category. However, the price point has already determined that this would be a very small market. And for people in this market, they have higher demand than those who are satisfied with 6 inch devices to justify the extra cost. And if the company failed to satisfy these demand in a timely manner, it is just a matter of time to be out of business.
Personally, I think Chapter 11 is good for IREX and customers. While they have to come up plans to do whatever financial tricks to stay, they will also have to make the current products more profitable, that means more useful features and less bugs, which is probably not urgent if they sell well. In the worst case, someone else will buy the design team and come up with new marketing strategies to sell them. The biggest problem for existing problem is truly the warranty.