A follow-up to my post on Plastic Logic: As anticipated, Plastic Logic has announced it is not going to ship the Que. It is refunding pre-orders and has not announced another ship date.
Wired’s “Gadget Lab” blog writes:
“Plastic Logic wants to make sure that the product they deliver is the right one for their target business customers in the rapidly changing marketplace,” a spokesperson for Plastic Logic wrote in an e-mail to us. “They are continuing to refine the product, technology and features, and are anxious to get in the marketplace as soon as possible.”
Yeah. After the iPad and everything else that has happened, I will be very surprised if Plastic Logic ever manages to come out with anything. Unless they make some pretty big changes, the market has already passed them by.
Len Edgerly on his TheKindlechronicles.com podcast had a fascinating VIDEO clip at the electronic convention featuring Plastic Logic’s Que. Here’s the link: http://www.thekindlechronicles.com/2010/01/07/tkc-extra-plastic-logic-at-ces/
It really looked like a very good device and the presenter was enthusiastic. Too bad it couldnm’t come to market at a realistic price. But the video is worth watching.
New product release is hard. I think the Kindle/Nook on one end and Apple iPad on the other will pretty much dominate the pricing spectrum. If I were looking at entering this market, I’d go with a low-cost operating system (Linux/Android/etc.) and a multi-function web-oriented tablet. Then I’d make sure I had working Kindle for and Nook for applications running.
Then again, maybe that’s why I’m not in hardware development.
Rob Preece
Publisher