iRex iLiad hits Japan

[anansi]

Originally Posted by friendoffun

As far as I could see from the Japanese press release, they haven't mentioned any specs that aren't in the English version. As for competition, the main competition is cellphones. PDAs, tablets and UMPCs are pretty thin on the ground in regular electronics stores here. Dedicated Ebook readers are very hard to find. The only one I have found is the Wordsgear, but that was in Kinokuniya (a book store).

Aren't the chinese brands, (hamlin and starebook I believe), available in japan, also when I said more demanding I meant zero-tolerance for the "bait and switch" type of stunt they pulled in europe

[friendoffun]

The chinese brands may be available, but I have yet to see them in any of the large major electronics stores here. It may be that I'm not looking in the right places.

[Azayzel]

I haven't seen a pinch of either Chinese brands anywhere I've been, and I live in Tokyo, frequenting all the major electronics areas to see if anything new catches my attention. Not sure why we haven't seen anything yet, especially in Akihabara (famous for it's "You can find anything here" electronics mecca).

On a side note, I've seen a ton of the Sony UMPC's available quite cheap second-hand. This kinda turned me off of one when I was in the market for something small and portable, because if so many are being traded in then people aren't happy with them. They usually run about anywhere from 90,000-110,000 yen (or $780 to $950 USD), that's darn cheap! I ended up finding a very cheap Sony PCG-X505, which is the lightest laptop out at ~850 grams. Might be a few years old, but it's still a 1Ghz Pentium-M. Now I just have to offload my TabletPC, may post in the markerplace sometime in the near future...

[joblack]

How much will it cost in Japan?

[bruce]

Good question. At a minimum, they ought to be able to reduce if not eliminate most of the ridiculous single-unit shipping charges one pays when ordering from iRexShop for shipment to Japan right now.

Also, considering the tolerance folks here have for using tiny screens to read mail and browse, iRex may not be able to get away with charging as much of a premium for the iLiad's larger screen size. Why should someone pay 2-3 times the cost of the near equivalent, locally made, locally supported competitor?

iRex has a window of opportunity in Japan as there currently no widely available ereaders in the stores (at least not at my locally Yodobashi Camera!) if they market aggressively, reprice the product more sanely, and put in place a solid customer service capability from day one. But they will have to move quickly to grab market share or they will be flushed from the market the day Sony or other competitors decide to loose their marketing machines.

Oh yeah, and it might help to come up with a cute cartoon character to help sell the reader (Illy-chan the eReader?) :-)

[bruce]

Say, can anyone at iRex Technologies say when Japanese localization will be added to the list of supported languages on the iLiad?

[Mekugi Ana]

Originally Posted by nekokami

No, I meant the current iLiad won't compete well against the FLEPia A5 when it's released, as the FLEPia, if released as described so far, will have pretty much the same functionality and form factor, plus color, and be cheaper. Except that it runs WinCE, which I wouldn't buy, but I don't know how much the Japanese market will care about that.

I think iRex needs to find a way to get their price much lower.

I don't think it'll be cheaper actually. I was looking and this link suggests they'll cost about 150,000 - 260,000 Yen a piece (~$1300-$2200 US)

Fujitsu Press Release

That even makes the iLiad look easy on the wallet

I think the real competition in Japan will be for ease of use. They seem to have a high standard for functionality and not having to tinker with electronics.

[Azayzel]

Originally Posted by friendoffun

As far as I could see from the Japanese press release, they haven't mentioned any specs that aren't in the English version. As for competition, the main competition is cellphones. PDAs, tablets and UMPCs are pretty thin on the ground in regular electronics stores here. Dedicated Ebook readers are very hard to find. The only one I have found is the Wordsgear, but that was in Kinokuniya (a book store).

Arghh! Knew I should've stopped by Kinokuniya today. My friend suggested we check there when we had no luck in Akihabara. Was it the one in Shinjuku or are you in a different region of Japan; i.e., Osaka, etc.? Thanks!