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Jul. 23, 2009

A new e-book reader will use a wireless connection from AT&T, letting it access books anywhere there's an Internet WiFi connection.

The wireless carrier plans to announce that it will support an electronic book reading device due in February from Plastic Logic Ltd., a new startup company that uses British display technology.

This underscores the second significant announcement of the week for Plastic Logic, which said on July 20 that Barnes & Noble will supply digital versions of books for its device.

With the AT&T and Barnes & Noble deals in place, Plastic Logic will be able to match functions of Amazon's Kindle, which uses the company's e-book store and a wireless connection provided by Sprint Nextel.

However, and according to Chief Executive Richard Archuleta, Plastic Logic's goals are very different than Amazon's.

The device's large screen will be almost 8.5 inches by 11 inches, and its target market will be professionals who would want to display business documents in nearly full size. Reading novels would be a secondary application.

Like the Kindle, Plastic Logic uses an "electronic ink" display, which looks somewhat similar to regular paper and consumes very little power. However, it takes a relatively long time to switch between images, making navigation extremely slow.

But Archuleta says the company is working on new technology that will hopefully solve that problem, but failed to offer any timeline.

Newspaper subscriptions are available through the Kindle, and Archuleta said his company also is in discussions with "every major newspaper in the U.S." to get their content. USA Today and the Detroit Free Press, both owned by Gannett are already partners with Plastic Logic.

"If somebody is just looking to read a book, and that's all they're going to do, they probably don't need all the capabilities in our product," Archuleta said.

Plastic Logic hasn't said what its new ebook reader will cost, or how users will pay for the use of AT&T's network. Kindle users don't pay Sprint directly. Instead, Amazon pays the carrier using proceeds from its book sales.

Nielsen Co. analyst Roger Entner has estimated that Sprint gets about $2 per month per Kindle user.

In addition to the cellular broadband modem, Plastic Logic's device will be able to use Wi-Fi Internet connectivity. AT&T has an extensive network of public Wi-Fi hot spots, but the parties would not say whether access to that network would be included for owners of the reader.

AT&T's network is compatible with overseas wireless carriers as well, which means that the Plastic Logic reader could work internationally, unlike the Kindle, which is a huge advantage for Plastic Logic, especially when you consider all the many business applications this entails.

"With Amazon having done a great job as a pioneer in this space, I think we're going to see lots of new people jump in, and mostly from the business sector" said Glenn Lurie, head of AT&T's Emerging Devices unit.

AT&T is impatient to see more non-phone devices use its network, and has set up an Emerging Devices division to attract other ebook manufacturers.

Other wireless carriers are doing just the same. Three months ago, an executive at Verizon Wireless said that the mobile service carrier had been approached by five companies about wireless connections for e-book readers.

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Source: Plastic Logic.