Report: Asus to Launch Eee-book Reader

Asus has thus fair been fairly successful in launching consumer-friendly computing devices under its Eee brand. With netbooks, nettops already under its belt, Asus is now taking a firm look at tackling the growing ebook segment.

According to Digitimes, who cites Asus company president Jerry Shen, the computer market plans to launch an ebook reader under the Eee brand (we'd like to call it the Eee-book reader), perhaps even as early as the end of 2009.

The requirements to enter the ebook market should be less demanding than the ones for netbooks and nettops, presumably because Asus would not have to worry about special agreements and restrictions set in place by partners such as Intel and Microsoft. Of course, the real challenge for any ebook platform is a stable and populated content delivery system.

Marcus Yam
Marcus Yam served as Tom's Hardware News Director during 2008-2014. He entered tech media in the late 90s and fondly remembers the days when an overclocked Celeron 300A and Voodoo2 SLI comprised a gaming rig with the ultimate street cred.
  • sanctoon
    well, if its cheap enough i'm game
    Reply
  • resonance451
    The market is going to get so oversaturated that many companies will die as a result. :p

    I can't wait until a more precise standard emerges between all e-books so that we don't get trapped in a proprietary mess like the old DRM'd Apple garbage.
    Reply
  • tayb
    Solution in search of a problem.
    Reply
  • michaelahess
    If it's much cheaper than the current bunch, I'll buy it.
    Reply
  • greg512
    The problem with e-book readers is their lack of standards. Their needs to be open standards. I don't want to be stuck with an e-book reader without any book support...
    Reply
  • I'd already buy the Amazon Kindle 2/DX or similar but I think the display technology is just not there yet: browsing the pages is too slow. Besides, an SD-card slot is a definite Must(TM).
    Reply
  • icepick314
    everyone's saying if it's cheap, then they'll get it...

    but it has to be cheaper than than their netbook...why bother with one function device when you can get netbook that can read ebooks and many other things?
    Reply
  • p00dl3_h3r0
    icepick314everyone's saying if it's cheap, then they'll get it...but it has to be cheaper than than their netbook...why bother with one function device when you can get netbook that can read ebooks and many other things?
    For real. Not to mention that netbooks are already cheaper than the other e-book readers. If it can support almost any known document file types, meet the nice and cheap price point, and not make me feel like i'm staring into the backlight of a gameboy for hours on end, than I would for sure consider getting one. However, i'm pretty confident my money is safe.
    Reply
  • chaohsiangchen
    I want a solar powered e-book. No, this is not a joke.

    http://www.mydigitallife.info/2008/06/02/apples-innovative-idea-of-integrating-solar-panel-into-mobile-lcd-design/
    Reply
  • WheelsOfConfusion
    To: Asus

    Dear Sir or Madam,

    NO DRM PLZ

    Sincerely,
    Everybody
    Reply