photo.jpgIt’s rare that you get to see the people behind the product, but here are the CEO (on the left) and Marketing Director (on the right) of Endless ideas – Johan Hagenbeuk and Peter Zieleman. They hail from Utrecht in The Netherlands.

At the previous show they were showing a 3G product which is now discontinued. They told me that the challenges of roaming in Europe made 3G impractical. Unlike the US, you can travel a short distance in Europe and then you will move to a different national carrier whose roaming arrangements are completely different. Thus, you have to negotiate with a multitude of carriers in order to have any sort of 3G coverage. This is one reason, they said, that Amazon has to charge extra in Europe for its 3G Kindle. Endless, then, decided to drop 3G as being too complicated to deal with and is staying with a WiFi model.

The Neo uses a Wacom panel (with a slot to hold the stylus, unlike a competitor) and has great contrast. They told me that the contrast is 100% and the screen refresh is extremely fast (they say 50% faster than other units). They say this is because of the software and the controller.

Their European sales are excellent, with about a 1 week stock turn and they are finding that sales are doubling (along with employees) every month. They’ve just opened an Australian office. Sales take place throughout Europe, but not much is being done in Eastern Europe. US sales are also doing well and are doubling, also, in each quarter. They are still looking for a major US distributor. Their prime competitor in Europe is Sony.

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