by Michelle Lentz
Yesterday at CES, Plastic Logic debuted the QUE ebook reader. This is more than just an ebook reader however; it borders on personal organizer.
Squarely aimed at type-A CEOs, the device comes in at $649 for the 4GB model with wifi and $799 for the 8GB model with wifi and AT&T 3G. The QUE is oversized, more like the Kindle DX than the Kindle 2. They demo the device with several business publications loaded, including the Wall Street Journal and the Harvard Business Review. Plastic Logic has a content deal with Barnes & Noble.
The design is absolutely gorgeous. QUE design was inspired by a piece of paper. The size of a pad of paper, about 1/3 inch thick, and weighing less than many periodicals (about a pound), QUE features a 10.7-inch shatterproof plastic display—the largest display in the industry. The display screen is rimmed with a shiny black frame. It’s gorgeous, but I suspect it would attract fingerprints – a small complaint really.
The QUE does more than just read newspapers and books. The screen displays your latest emails and calendar, pulled from Outlook. It also displays your favorite subscriptions and books so that you can access those with one touch instead of moving to a Table of Contents screen. In the midst of all this is also the content you are reading. With one touch, you can move from the Organizer style home screen to your content.
When we asked what formats the QUE supported, I laughed. This device is so geared at business that the rep told us “Word, Powerpoint, and Excel.” Upon further inquiry, she added GIF, JPG, PNG, BMP, TXT, and HTML as well as RTF, Visio, PDF, and ePub. (Right now, I’m almost positive that the Kindle is the only eReader on the market that does not support ePub. Get with the program Amazon – time for another firmware update.)
The QUE is a beautiful device. They clearly put a lot of effort into everything from the design to the one-touch navigation. However, I don’t think it will make a dent in the ever-growing ereader market. From what I saw at CES, only the Alex ebook reader really had some features that can compete with the Kindle, the Nook, and Sony. The QUE is aimed at an affluent, niche market. It’s lovely, but for us average folks, it’s not really practical.
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Cheers!
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