The new Que e-reader was able to stand out among the throngs of products (and people) at the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) last week, but will it still shine as brightly when it hits the market in mid-April?
Plastic Logic revealed at CES, that its device is truly more than an e-reader. One of its slickest features lets you beam your BlackBerry email and attachments onto the device, so you don’t have to squint at a tiny screen. The Que places email, documents, and Outlook on a single 10.7-inch screen with touch access so the important info you need is right there. You can also download the Wall Street Journal, Forbes, Barron’s, etc., scribble notes on your spread sheets, Word documents, etc. and save the annotations. Then there’s access to a million books via Wi-Fi or AT&T 3G depending on the model.
The Que is pricey at $649 for the 4GB Wi-Fi version with Bluetooth and USB, and $799 for a 3G wireless version with 8GB of storage. You’re paying for the privilege of not lugging around a laptop, I presume.
Does it stand a chance against a $489 Kindle or the rumored Apple tablet (iSlate)?
One of my favorite analysts, Norbert Hildebrand of Insight Media gives Plastic Logic an A+ for marketing. But now that Plastic Logic has tipped its hand, it gives Chinese e-reader makers a nice lead time to catch up to the Que, he says.
Final conclusion, from Hildebrand: “Nice product if it would ship now.” The Que’s features could become mainstream by the time it ships.
