iRex, the Dutch company that produced the Illiad ebook reader for several years, and recently started selling their new DR800 reader in Best Buy stores has filed for Chapter 11. Whether they will proceed to bankruptcy isn’t clear yet, but iRex brass are apparently hopeful this can be turned around. Analysts are less so.

Its not hard to see where iRex’s troubles have stemmed from. It has zero consumer name recognition in a field that is now populated by Amazon and Barnes & Noble and Sony and…oh yeah, Apple. Beyond that iRex doesn’t have it’s own online bookstore, which is a prime moneyspinner and awareness factory for those four competitors I already mentioned.

Last but not least, the quite decent DR800 which was supposed to make the company’s fortunes missed it’s December release date and shipped in February instead. So it it DID make a holiday release as promised, only the wrong holiday. Valentines isn’t exactly Christmas, not even in Holland.

I hope that iRex is able to come out of Chapter 11 and take another run at the ebook market outside of Europe. The DR800 really looked good, and I think that they would have a good chance of carving out a niche as a dedicated ebook reader amongst the tablets. Of course, they are going to have to drop that pricetag a good deal to manage it.

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Posted by: pybadyfyto at 06:12 AM | No Comments | Add Comment
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