Las Vegas — South Korean electronics giant Samsung is going head-to-head with Amazon and Sony in the burgeoning e-reader market took the wraps off two wireless e-readers at the annual Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas, the “E6” with a six-inch (15.2-centimeter) screen and the “E101” with a 10-inch (25.4-centimeter) display.
Samsung touted its new black-and-white display e-readers, which contains a stylus for writing directly on the screen, and making annotations with an electromagnetic resonance are broadly similar in screen size to Amazon’s Kindle products.
“It is not just a reading device,” said Doug Albregts, vice president of Samsung’s information technology division. “It is more like paper with a handwriting feature in it that allows you to write directly on the display.
An attendee examines the new E6 e-book reader by Samsung
In addition to the E6 and E101 e-readers announced at the CES, both of which can be used for note taking and drawing in addition to reading, Samsung also has a smaller 5-inch model and a 6-inch model with a QWERTY keypad for thumb typing. Both e-readers also have touch-screens and the same handwriting capability with built-in electromagnetic resonance (EMR) stylus pens.
Samsung made a pact with Google to deliver e-books from Google’s library of over 1 million volumes. E-books can be downloaded wirelessly on the devices via Wi-Fi 802.11b/g signals or sharing content with other devices with Bluetooth 2.0. The two new Samsung e-readers can run for two weeks after charging, the company said. They are also equipped for wireless.
Google global director of communications Gabriel Stricker appeared in a video appearance at the Samsung event to announce that the Web giant, which is compiling a vast online library of books, would be a partner with Samsung.
“We want people to find these books anywhere, anytime,” Stricker said, calling Samsung a “great match for us at Google.”
“We are so excited to make our million-plus public domain books available,” he said.
According to Samsung, the E6 and the E101 will be released in U.S. in “early 2010”. It is, as of now, unclear if this will move past the U.S. and the UK markets. As for the prices, the initial estimates hover at around $399 for the E6 and $699 for the E101.
The new Samsung devices will compete with Amazon’s popular Kindle and a host of other new devices already on the market, including the Sony Reader, the “Nook” from Barnes & Noble and the Cool-er from Britain’s Interead.
Samsung is among numerous exhibitors unveiling e-readers at CES but the category has been overshadowed lately by reports that consumer electronics star Apple may shortly unveil a tablet computer that may double as an e-book reader.