New Reader the Future of Newspapers?

Newspaper subscriptions have been falling steadily for several years. Amazon’s Kindle, which appears to be a hit, held out the promise of reviving them for the Internet generation. The Kindle offers subscriptions to popular newspapers but (in my view) is an awkward device for several reasons.

Enter a new newspaper reader that appears much more elegant than the Kindle, with better resolution, from a company called Plastic Logic. The NY Times covers the device, which goes on sale next year. No price has been announced to date.

According to the article in the Times the device is updated through a wireless connection and “can store hundreds of pages.” It’s unclear whether the device is flexible but Plastic Logic has demo’d a range of flexible screen products. This one features a newspaper:

This device appears to have great screen resolution (not sure about color or touch screen capabilities). Priced right I predict it would be a big success and could boost newspaper subscriptions. It’s like print yet delivered electronically with all or most of the capabilities of a newspaper site.

It also raises the intriguing question about this as a general Internet access device.

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Esquire issues magazine with “electronic ink” cover:

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