Delivery of Plastic Logic’s Que proReader is slipping to summer. The company had announced a April launch of the business-orented ebook reader at the Consumer Electronics Show in January and had begun taking pre-orders. In an email to customers (after the break) Plastic Logic CEO Richard Archuleta said the delay was to “fine-tune the features and enhance the overall product experience.”
The Que is a large-format reader with a monochrome E Ink display. Plastic Logic’s unique technology, which uses logic components printed on a plastic substrate, allows the Que to be exceptionally thin and light. It is priced at $649 for a 4 gigabyte Wi-Fi model and $799 for an 8 GB version that also features AT&T 3G wireless.
The delay is embarrassing for the company, which had once talked of shipping the product in early 2009. But it may prove fortunate. Apple’s iPad, for which pre-orders began today, is scheduled to ship April 3 and it has sucked all the oxygen out of the atmosphere around the e-book market. The Que competes much more directly with Amazon’s Kindle DX than the iPad, and features such as easy loading of business documents and BlackBerry integration target it firmly at a business and professional market. But it would have been hard for Plastic Logic to get much attention in what is certain to be an obsessive flood of media coverage, not to mention Apple marketing, surrounding the iPad launch.
Archuleta’s email:
From: Richard Archuleta
Subject: QUE proReader Shipping Update
Dear [First and Last Name of Customer via Mail Merge]:
Thank you for being one of the first customers to order a QUE proReader from Plastic Logic. We appreciate your business.
Today, I wanted to personally inform you that we are postponing the first QUE proReader shipments until this Summer in order to fine-tune the features and enhance the overall product experience.
Within the next month we will send you an email with more details about your order. If you also ordered accessories for your QUE proReader, we plan to ship them at the same time as your QUE proReader.
I can imagine that you want to get your QUE proReader as soon as possible. We are sorry for the delay. For your inconvenience, the shipping charges will be on us.
Please note that we will not charge your credit card until your order is ready to ship.
If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to email us at QUEhelp@PlasticLogic.com.
Once again, thank you for being one of our first QUE proReader customers.
Best regards,
Richard Archuleta
CEO
Plastic Logic
Steve Wildstrom on Tech 
March 12, 2010 at 1:55 pm |
I believe it is devices such as this that will either breath new life into the newspaper and magazine business or alter the business so much it will be unrecognizable in a short time.
Steve I use your blog as an example, do I need a magazine or the author? The magazine is packaging, editing and so forth but it is the author we value
PS Pre-ordered my iPad this morning