Astak Mentor eBook readers with WiFi and Touchscreen (read-only)

[HarryT]

Name clashes only matter if there is room for confusion in the mind of the consumer. As long as there's no other eBook reader with that name, they're OK. Trademarks are "sector specific" - eg you could register "Crispy-Bake" as a trademark for a cooking-related product, but it wouldn't stop someone releasing, say, a "Crispy-Bake" PC .

I would note, however, that "EZ Reader" isn't a very good name if it's intended to be sold world-wide. In most of the English-speaking world, the letter "Z" is pronounced "Zed", not "Zee", therefore "EZ" being a variant of "Easy" will not occur to most people seeing the name.

[AJ Starr]

Originally Posted by HarryT

Name clashes only matter if there is room for confusion in the mind of the consumer. As long as there's no other eBook reader with that name, they're OK.

From the goole search, the other items were, of course, related to book readers, though for the children's market mostly. Also, some related to software.

The name is "E-Z" to remember, but is it unique enough??

[worxland]

Originally Posted by HarryT

In most of the English-speaking world, the letter "Z" is pronounced "Zed", not "Zee", therefore "EZ" being a variant of "Easy" will not occur to most people seeing the name.

In this you are wrong. Like it or not, American English is the most common English by now.

[pilotbob]

Originally Posted by worxland

In this you are wrong. Like it or not, American English is the most common English by now.

I'd have to disagree with you there. I listen to a pod cast that interviews alot of people from outside of US. People from Canada, Australia, UK, New Zealand, India, Isreal, The Netherlands all use "Zed" to say the letter Z.

BOb

[HarryT]

Originally Posted by worxland

In this you are wrong. Like it or not, American English is the most common English by now.

For people learning English as a foreign language then yes, you're right. I was referring to people who speak English as a first language which, with the notable exception of the US, are the countries of what was formerly the British Empire - India, Australia, New Zealand, etc etc. All these places speak variants of British English. There are more English speakers in India than in the US.

[axel77]

People who are learning english as foreign language are likely to go with an impretation that matches their mother tongue.

I for example as german (on place 4 of the world most spoken languages) always thought about Eh-Tset, and wondered about the stupid name. Only in this thread I heared now its supposed to be a variation of easy...) BTW. Personally I dislike easy-anything names. I was once in a company that tried that as marketing gag. It failed miserably. The only thing that is worse is anything with "brain" in their name.

And I can tell you as foreign, 99% of our people learning english as foreign tonque the isn't developed enough to differentiate at all between british and american accent. We usually take from both as we remember and just try to get rid of our german accent or other "germanisms" in the english language. That is e.g. to build sentences like no english speaker ever would. (and I guess even this very post is full it)

But I don't care about the name. I'm much more nosy to her the full story of the from heaven promises from a few months ago, and the now more than disillusionising reality. I read from a set of people who refrained to buy an eInk device yet, to wait for the Astak, as some seem to have understood only 9" for less than 200$... I feel sorry for them, could have enjoyed an eReader device for months now, and are still forced to buy what was available all the time. Or to get a new device, that doesn't seem to be any better than the current market.

[worxland]

Originally Posted by HarryT

For people learning English as a foreign language then yes, you're right. I was referring to people who speak English as a first language which, with the notable exception of the US, are the countries of what was formerly the British Empire - India, Australia, New Zealand, etc etc. All these places speak variants of British English. There are more English speakers in India than in the US.

Now you confused me. BTW I was refering to all English-speakers, not only natives.
However let's speak about English as first language. I do not really see how India comes in the picture. How many Indians (no pun intended) speak English? 1 %? 2? 3? That makes 12-36 millions people. And they are not learning English as primary language. How many Americans speak English? Somewhere in the vicinity of 90-95 %? Let's be rude and say 70% - leaving out most of the illegal immigrants. That's still 150+ millions. More than GB, Ireland, NZ, Australia and India (which does not really belong here) combined.
For non-natives Hollywood won the issue for the American language.

[Barcey]

Well if you believe Wikipedia....
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of...ing_population

[wallcraft]

Originally Posted by worxland

How many Indians (no pun intended) speak English? 1 %? 2? 3? That makes 12-36 millions people.

Wikipedia has a page: List of countries by English-speaking population. India is 2nd with 90M after USA 1st (250M) and UK is 4th after Nigeria.

I agree than EZ is too cute, but Astak's primary market is the Americas so most of their customers will understand the name.

[nekokami]

We could argue about whether more people speak "American" English vs. British English, but the real question is how people tend to pronounce the letter "Z". I'm pretty sure a minority would pronounce it "zee." I agree, it's an unfortunate choice of a name for an international product, but sometimes products get new names when they are marketed internationally.

I don't think Astak is going to be able to keep its earlier pricing claims, which were made when they thought they'd be introducing a new hardware model to the market.

[worxland]

Originally Posted by Barcey

Well if you believe Wikipedia....
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of...ing_population

2 000 000 (20%) in Hungary? If the vocabulary of "yes-no-change money" is enough then OK. Otherwise much closer to 10%.

[Robertb]

Originally Posted by HarryT

Robert,

Can you explain, please, how we went from your statement (concerning your 6" reader) that:



to the current situation where Dale informs us that:



Is that rumour correct, or are you going to stand by your previous price estimate?

I mean no disrespect in saying this, but for months you've been raising peoples' expectations, and now we have what appears to be nothing more than "yet another Hanlin clone" at the same price point as all the others. What do you have to say to people who are certain to be disappointed by this?

Dear Harry:

Thank you for nicely asking a question I knew would come up. It is a sore point and might as well get right to it.

When we first talked about a FIVE inch device coming out at about $200... those were the numbers we had from the factory. The factory built such a device and sold it overseas. WE here in the USA did NOT see it as competitive for the USA market. I do not want to point out problems but it was not what we wanted after learning what I did learn on MobileRead Forum.
Then... we saw what COULD be done and decided to wait and have the factory build one exact to our specs. Keep in mind this is our first and only eBook Reader and we had absolutely NO knowledge of the market at the start. The speed was not right for us so we wanted the new Epson Controller but it was not released. We wanted Adobe Digital Editions but it was not yet available. We COULD have done the easy thing... and put out a junky eBook Reader... BUT WE DID NOT! We stayed true to bringing out something good. The fuel crisis also made a mess of everything from components to transportation... and costs shot up across the board.

Meanwhile, we had an $84,000 booth at CES in Las Vegas for January 8-11. We HAD to get it last year and you cannot rescind. Faced with a booth made to show eBook Readers and no eBook Reader... we were approached by Hanlin. We were impressed with their eBook Reader. The V3 IS a fine Reader and lacked only technical and sales support in North and South America. With minor modifications we saw a quality device that could be great for this market. SO... first out is the EZ Reader which is a Hanlin V3 with our support network, our sales efforts and technical support and our blessing (as we beat hell out of it in testing and it took it all). We feel our EZ Reader is a fabulous device and I personally am buying the first unit in Electric Blue!

What this does is:

1. Give us a rock-solid device that we can fully support and we know it is good.
2. It gives us an eBook Reader to actually show and sell at CES.
3. It lets us make some modifications and it will soon be offered with WiFi and Touchscreen variations.
4. It gives us a world of experience.
5. It buys time to come out with exactly the devices from our factory to make use of the latest improvements not yet released (such as Epson Controller and a Flexi Screen).
6. We feel we failed nobody and came out with a quality device in the Hanlin that we can make better! It is light, thin, and works like a jewel. It is something we have faith in and it fits what we want to release... a smaller and lighter Reader that doesn't have the bulk of the others.

The price is NOT $200 because it is not that same device. It is a six inch and a good one... but we can keep the engineers at the factory designing our own machines with all the latest innovations.

I hope that you will ask yourself what you would have done... because I think we stood by solid ideals and feel good about this. Astak may be relatively new to eBook Readers but we do stand for quality; and this is a dynamic little device that is very hard to beat.

Robert B

[Lemurion]

Thank you RobertB, that does make a lot of sense. Unfortunately, while I had been holding off on buying a Sony because I wanted the Astak, this change has put me back into looking at the Sony product.

I was specifically looking for two features: Ereader support and a lower price. I can understand your decision, but the lack of the two biggest points in your favor has rendered the device much less attractive to me personally.

Thanks again, and who knows I may end up not getting anything until late enough that I will be looking at Astak.

[Robertb]

Originally Posted by Lemurion

Thank you RobertB, that does make a lot of sense. Unfortunately, while I had been holding off on buying a Sony because I wanted the Astak, this change has put me back into looking at the Sony product.

I was specifically looking for two features: Ereader support and a lower price. I can understand your decision, but the lack of the two biggest points in your favor has rendered the device much less attractive to me personally.

Thanks again, and who knows I may end up not getting anything until late enough that I will be looking at Astak.

Dear Lemurion:

Thank you for a nice reply and I know you will choose wisely.

Frankly, I like eReader also and its second life>>> ePub. EPub is a true Open Format. The problem is that nobody wants to port it. IF anybody out there can port eReader to a device... contact me! It is NOT what you and other readers think (and I use to think): you picks a format and youse are all set. Getting the format normally means a license fee as number one. Then, nobody has a clue how to put it on your device. IF you can find someone, try
$at least $50,000 to do the job with few guarantees. I am not trying to say "pity the poor manufacturer"... I am trying to say that BIG companies own formats and it is not just making a choice at all.

On another thread on MobileRead Forum, I just laid out HOW the costs to get a 6 inch model to market add up. This is NOT a case of "Let's Make Lots of Money" or greed... you maybe make $45 profit on a device that sells for $300.. I am buying the first Astak EZ Reader and IF I am fortunate it will cost ME $260 as an employee. As an "insider" I can tell you I do not see a $200 device coming out after watching the costs line up month after month!

Robert B

[Over]

So, the other devices features and prices will follow the initial plan, or will tread the same path of this 6" ereader?