The five-inch Astak E Ink reader, the first of the Mentor series, won’t hit the company’s Web store until late August or maybe late September. The company had been aiming for June, then July.
Retail sales—Astak has been wooing big outlets like Walmart and Costco—are to come later.
Six- and 9.7-inch models with more features are supposed to come out in late August and late November, respectively.
Price goal: Less than $249 for five incher
Price for the basic model is supposed to be less than $249. E-book formats include TXT, PDF, RTF and HTML/CHM. The word from Astaj is that "The Mobipocket format has been delayed for the time being. The problem is in porting the format onto the device. At this point, all new releases will be ported with eReader and .pdf."
While Astak has taken criticism for its delays and northward-bound prices—and, yes, I myself am disappointed—there’s another side here. Ideally the new units, at least the 9.7-incher, will be more rugged if Astak’s suppliers have extra time. Astak’s Robert Barry had raised the durability question in the past.
E Ink readers’ screen breakage rate: One argument for Astak taking its time
Screen breakage is indeed an issue for prospective buyers of E Ink machines. Photo shows a Kindle with a screen problem. Very unscientific TeleRead polls so far show that breakage rates are eight percent for the Kindle, 14 percent for the Sony Reader, and 13 percent for the Cybook. The Kindle did not become easily available until this spring, one possible reason why its rate appears to be less than for the others. Many and perhaps most of the screen breaks in the three machines may have been the fault of users—you can’t protect an E Ink machine against the slam of a car door.
Just the same, what’s the definition of "fault" here? How about more marginal cases? And so if Astak and other vendors are able to address the breakage issue, especially through new technology, that will be to the advantage of us consumers—including the masses buying at Walmart. I can’t wait for rugged, flexible E Ink displays.
I’m saddened to hear about the delay, but not especially surprised. Both the timeframes and the prices did seem extremely ambitious in the original announcements.