The State of e-book Readers: October 2009

So we have been hearing about all kinds of e-book reader devices coming up in the next few months. Of course, not all these new models are expected to survive, and a lot of companies are just getting their feet wet to find out whether the market is a viable one for them. But some of these upcoming devices do have a lot of potential. Take Sony Reader Daily Edition. It’s the most powerful Sony Reader ever released and can hold its own against Kindle. Nook has already gotten a lot of buzz about being the “most advanced e-book reader” on the market. There are of course plenty of other devices that may have the same potential but are yet to be released to the market. So let’s take a look and see what’s coming up in the next few months (ordered based on potential):

• Apple iPad Tablet: not an e-book reader by itself, but Apple seems to be up to something big. We all know what Apple iPod did to the mp3 player market. The same could happen with the iPad in the e-book reader market. The downside is you won’t get e-ink technology on the device.
• Microsoft Courier: the are a lot of rumors going around about the possibility of Microsoft releasing its own e-Book reader. Courier certainly looks promising.
• Nook: Nook has already been announced, and it is coming out later this year (2009). The device runs on Android, so the potential is there.
• Sony Reader PRS-2121 Daily Edition: Sony’s next generation device is the latest attempt by Sony to finally match Amazon in the e-book market. Sony has partnered up with a wireless carrier and is working with content publishers to provide Sony Reader owners with more content to consume on their devices.
• QUE e-Book Reader: Plastic Logic is finally releasing its highly anticipated e-book reader. It’s taken the company a while, but QUE is finally ready for a roll out.
• Asus Eee Reader: the device has just been announced, and we still don’t know how good it will be. But with a microphone, a web-cam, and a color screen, it has a lot of potential. Will it come with e-ink technology?
• Crunchpad: TechCrunch has big plans for its Crunchpad. The prototypes certainly look interesting. I still don’t know whether the backing is strong enough for this reader to compete with the big guns, but it’s worth watching out for.
• Txtr: an interesting device worth looking forward to. Txtr Reader is designed to give you the best connectivity features possible. It will be released in October, so it’s almost here.
• Boox: Boox is an interesting reader with similar specifications to Kindle 2.0 but the device does support open format documents. It’s also a tablet too.
• iRex Reader: if you have used iRex iLiad in the past, you probably know what to expect with this device. The details are sketchy and not so much information is available on the device.
• iRiver Reader: yet another 6 inch e-book reader that wants to be the next Kindle killer. I am not confident it has what it takes to compete effectively with the big guns.
• Readius: would be the best looking pocket reader if we had a release date on it. The latest news is that we may never see this reader as the parent company deals with bankruptcy.

There you have it. Lots of cool e-book readers that could potentially give Amazon Kindle a harder time in the future. Amazon is already feeling the pressure with the Nook, and the competition is only going to intensify.

Your take: how would you order the above ebook readers?