Look familiar? Yep. The Chinese have knocked off the Kindle, creating a device that looks just like the Kindle 2 and will be on sale in Japan for $210. The device will have a built-in cellular modem with SIM card.
The company, Peking University Founder, released no further specs nor did it explain what the hell its name means.
I think the eink used in this device is a combination of lead and mercury. ;P
You could always try Google for the meaning of that name : http://is.gd/1warX
There you’d find Peking University Founder Group is one of China’s biggest personal computer vendors. And from that you could write an interesting story about how China’s second biggest computer vendor has no shame in ripping off one of Americas biggest retailers for the sake of making money.
You could ask why this company didn’t bother with researching and developing its own eBook reader, and investigate the ethics behind such blatant copying.
Hell, with your contacts you could even drop an email over to eInk to ask if their patent has been infringed and if so, are they going to sue?
But of course, why bother, it’s much simpler to just copy and paste a press release and drop a ‘joke’ into your piece.
Good job! Give yourself a raise. When did TechCrunch get so crap?
The hardware might have been made, but the point was missed – it’s supposed to be easy to use. They probably don’t have the selection of books that Amazon does and they require the user to put in a SIM card to use it.
The difference between this and the Kindle is that out of the box, you can turn on the Kindle and start enjoying it. With this, you have to first get the SIM card, then find PDF’s or something, transfer them onto it, etc.
The selection of books might be ANYTHING YOU CAN CONVERT to its format, for all you know. :P
I’m not sure the ease of use is going to be an issue even without Amazon.
I might probably blame, more, the fact that more and more of our stuff is made in China-which means outsourcing all the manufacturing knowledge and designs. Face it–we’re losing our edge because we’re letting everyone ELSE make stuff and giving easy access to the materials and knowledge.
Buh!
I for one would rather get the Chinese version. Why? Because the Kindle — from what I’m aware of — does not do double-byte characters. Why not? Who knows. They missed the entire Asian market on selling the device. Does Amazon care? Probably not, they are in it for selling books, and probably don’t care to sell to Asian market.
It’ll be a matter of time before a few other corporations come out with a knock off of kindle.
Missing information CG. Does this copy-cat use E-ink or does it mimic with an LCD. If it’s an LCD, like I suspect, then it is way overpriced at $210.
Good. I have no sympathy for Amazon here.
They restricted themselves to the US market, so somebody has made a machine for the rest of the world. Good on them.
Having the cellular modem and sim card actually makes it more usable than a Kindle – which only works where the one US network is available.
China? Producing cheap copies of electronic devices? What has the world come to