If history is any predictor . . .

I just did a little research on Asghar Mostafi (Entourage CEO) and discovered that the 3 other corporations he started (that I know of) were "acquired" by other companies, one after a successful IPO launch. These are: Vinci Systems -- acquired after 2 years by Tellabs; Advanced Switching Communications -- IPO in 2000, incorporated 2001, acquired by NSGDatacom 2002; ISDN Systems Corp. -- acquired by US Robotics, now 3Com, (I don't know the timing).

Seems to me Mr. Mostafi has a history of founding startups which he then passes along before starting his next project. I believe he is still, or was still, on the board of directors of his old companies. Perhaps he had a buyer in mind all along?? Perhaps he has proven that this concept can work, and now someone else will be stepping in to run with the ball?

I am actually more optimistic now than ever (although there are bound to be changes).

(This is a duplicate of a post I made in the Ermine thread. Just thought it should be here. )

I had looked at some of that information before and had similar thoughts, although I am not sure if it makes me optimistic or not. Certainly this is his MO, to start a company and sell it. The question of course is what a buyer will do with the eDGe in today's highly competitive tablet market. Thanks for the very thorough review.

Unless they do something spectacular.
It needs to be lighter, run Honeycomb - with market and integration with Google products, have a capacitive touch, preferably matte, LCD screen, e ink needs to be at least 16 levels, dual core processor, way less bezel, you need to able to adjust a PDF on the screen in small steps (kind of like scrolling) and annotations need to work like they do in Repligo Reader, the camera needs to be more than it is now - which is pretty much nothing, have an accelerometer,GPS and 3G optional.
Those are all the things I would wish for.

Originally Posted by cheyennedonna

Unless they do something spectacular.
It needs to be lighter, run Honeycomb - with market and integration with Google products, have a capacitive touch, preferably matte, LCD screen, e ink needs to be at least 16 levels, dual core processor, way less bezel, you need to able to adjust a PDF on the screen in small steps (kind of like scrolling) and annotations need to work like they do in Repligo Reader, the camera needs to be more than it is now - which is pretty much nothing, have an accelerometer,GPS and 3G optional.
Those are all the things I would wish for.

You're basically describing a Xoom with an extremely sophisticated e-reader / annotator attached. No way they could sell that for less than $900 and make a profit.

In any case, Google is shutting off the Android source code spigot; they're only releasing the Honeycomb source to select manufacturers, ostensibly to reduce "fragmentation". You can bet that a small company like enTourage is not going to be one of them.

I guess I am, there are so many tablets being released I guess the Xoom, Toshiba and Asus Transformer all fit my wish list. But I love my e ink/annotation too. One can dream though.

It's a good dream. I would add Pearl e-ink to your list for the ideal device.

I figure if the company is acquired, at the very least our warranties will be honored. At best we will see new hardware and continued software upgrades. But who knows -- so many things could happen.

Originally Posted by cheyennedonna

Unless they do something spectacular.
It needs to be lighter, run Honeycomb - with market and integration with Google products, have a capacitive touch, preferably matte, LCD screen, e ink needs to be at least 16 levels, dual core processor, way less bezel, you need to able to adjust a PDF on the screen in small steps (kind of like scrolling) and annotations need to work like they do in Repligo Reader, the camera needs to be more than it is now - which is pretty much nothing, have an accelerometer,GPS and 3G optional.
Those are all the things I would wish for.

I'm not with you, sorry.
This is Edge, not another tablet like all the others.
Its main focus is working with texts. Rather than adding 3g (you can have it with a usb) and GPS, they should improve battery duration, reduce body warming, and make all the core functions work flawlessly.
We didnt ever tried Android 3.0, why are we supposing already it's the nirvana?
Capacitive touchscreen for tablet side: yes, it's a must. Also they could have an optional Pixel Qi, to improve battery.
Repligo reader is not designed to work on e-ink screens.
Of course a better e-ink screen will be appreciated, but all the current Vizplex are very similar to each other, don't you think Pearl is real improvement. A better 9,7" e-ink is not ready on the market at present.
The price: Edge should remain a working machine for education/academics rather than all-purpose toy, so it doesnt make sense to go over 500 dollars. They just need to improve their software to make text exploration faster and more comfortable

Originally Posted by Filark

I just did a little research on Asghar Mostafi (Entourage CEO) and discovered that the 3 other corporations he started (that I know of) were "acquired" by other companies, one after a successful IPO launch. These are: Vinci Systems -- acquired after 2 years by Tellabs; Advanced Switching Communications -- IPO in 2000, incorporated 2001, acquired by NSGDatacom 2002; ISDN Systems Corp. -- acquired by US Robotics, now 3Com, (I don't know the timing).

Seems to me Mr. Mostafi has a history of founding startups which he then passes along before starting his next project.

This is all perfectly normal, legimate, and indeed expected in the tech world. It's what Silicon Valley was/is all about.

Starting and selling a company is a great way to generate innovation and profit. Selling a company doesn't necessarily mean the end of the company as the buyer may be a big fish that will actually lift the company to levels it couldn't achieve on its own. Companies like Microsoft and Google are always buying up little fish that offer nuggets of tremendous innovation and skill.

I should also point out that Asghar Mostafi deserves our deepest respect and admiration, in my opinion. Consider that he guided the EE and PE to international distribution and acceptance by large publishers. He also initiated the $40 "Thank You" gift card to all who pre-ordered the EE last year. And lastly, I believe he is the driving force behind the second-to-none customer service enTourage provides (I say this because if the CEO doesn't care about customer service, why should his underlings bother).

The capacitive screen should have a dual digitizer with wacom so that you can use the pen on the LCD too. Regarding repligo-like annotation on the eink I think there are some things they could easily implement. Like storing the annotations in the pdf as a layer. so that you can open the original pdf with annotations anywhere.

Originally Posted by lorenzoens

I'm not with you, sorry.
This is Edge, not another tablet like all the others.
Its main focus is working with texts. Rather than adding 3g (you can have it with a usb) and GPS, they should improve battery duration, reduce body warming, and make all the core functions work flawlessly.
We didnt ever tried Android 3.0, why are we supposing already it's the nirvana?
Capacitive touchscreen for tablet side: yes, it's a must. Also they could have an optional Pixel Qi, to improve battery.
Repligo reader is not designed to work on e-ink screens.
Of course a better e-ink screen will be appreciated, but all the current Vizplex are very similar to each other, don't you think Pearl is real improvement. A better 9,7" e-ink is not ready on the market at present.
The price: Edge should remain a working machine for education/academics rather than all-purpose toy, so it doesnt make sense to go over 500 dollars. They just need to improve their software to make text exploration faster and more comfortable

Originally Posted by lorenzoens

I'm not with you, sorry.
This is Edge, not another tablet like all the others.
Its main focus is working with texts. Rather than adding 3g (you can have it with a usb) and GPS, they should improve battery duration, reduce body warming, and make all the core functions work flawlessly.
We didnt ever tried Android 3.0, why are we supposing already it's the nirvana?
Capacitive touchscreen for tablet side: yes, it's a must. Also they could have an optional Pixel Qi, to improve battery.
Repligo reader is not designed to work on e-ink screens.
Of course a better e-ink screen will be appreciated, but all the current Vizplex are very similar to each other, don't you think Pearl is real improvement. A better 9,7" e-ink is not ready on the market at present.
The price: Edge should remain a working machine for education/academics rather than all-purpose toy, so it doesnt make sense to go over 500 dollars. They just need to improve their software to make text exploration faster and more comfortable

It's not so much that I think Honeycomb is nirvana, but, I want Google market, mail and calendar. You can't have those without Honeycomb. PixelQi would be terrific too. As for the GPS and accelerometer it makes it useful in a school/teaching situation as well - Google Maps and Google Sky are great tools.
I also like fgruber's addition of the digitizer on the LCD.

Increasing complexity = introducing new troubles.
This is an unquestionable truth in ITC

I understand you, but still prefer to have a machine which can perform astonishingly well on a few tasks.