How cool is Interead's Cool-er e-book reader?

While this product may not necessarily fight Kindle, it is capable of creating its own niche and may make the market more open

I first read about Interead's Cool-er e-book reader in Edward C Baig's article on usatoday.com and was intrigued rather than amazed after all, what is a new reader from an unknown company doing in a market that has already been taken over by the big fish?

To understand this logic, consider those old Asterix comics remember how the swimming pool emptied whenever Obelix whose chest has slipped a bit jumped in? Well, companies like Amazon are like that. When they announce a product, well, only somebody equally big can try launching a competing product.

New entrant

But since Interead has launched its own reader, the first question that strikes us is thisu2014what chance does it have? I hopped on to their site to check things out, and I was impressed to say the least, though I have not used either this product or the Kindle.
The first thing that struck me was the price. Cool-er is priced at $249, which makes it considerably cheaper that the Kindle and Kindle 2, which are priced at $359, and the yet-to-arrive Kindle DX, which may cost $489.
Not just price
For a new entrant, having a price point that is at least $100 cheaper than a product from an established brand is definitely good, but this is not the only thing that is great about the product. One other nice thing is that it is very cheap on electricity usage.
This is because this product is not like a laptop screen minus the keyboard, which draws power when on. The Cool-er uses E-Ink technology, which, apart from giving you the feel of a paperback, uses power only when you turn the page. This means that every time you charge the reader, it is good for reading 8,000 pages.
Freedom of choice
One of the most irksome things with the IT industry is that many companies behave like kids playing cricketu2014it's my bat, so I get to bat even if I get out twice, or I will take my bat and go home. Many companies in this space will say that you can only use their e-reader with their e-books, but Interead says on its site that 'we do not want to restrict you to ONLY being able to use our e-reader for our e-books', which is good.
Thanks to Interead's attitude and pricing, bigger competitors may be forced to sell their products for a cheaper price and adopt a more open standard for their e-readers and e-books, which will benefit all consumers in the long run. That is why you need to thank Interead whether you buy the Cool-er or not.

QUICK TAKE
u2014 A company called Interead has announced an e-reader called the Cool-er
u2014 This product is over $100 cheaper than Amazon's Kindle
u2014 It may make an impact by forcing established players to drop prices

u00a0Specifications
>>Weight - 178 gm
>>Screen Size - 6"
>>DPI - 170 pixels per inch
>>OS - Linux
>>Storage - 1 GB
>>Formats - JPEG, PDF, EPUB, TXT
>>Titles - Over 750,000