Over the weekend the Blogs were buzzing, not on the latest innovations from CES–that’s yesterday’s news, but from an announcement that eee Netbook maker AsusTek is going to launch a dedicated e-Book reader (EBR) with a 6-inch-class OLED display rather than the typical electrophoretic (EPH) front plane technology, used by most EBR makers today. The UK’s Sunday Times Online tech section (called INGEAR), won an exclusive from Taiwan-based AsusTek on details of its newest e-Book reader iteration, dubbed the Asus (DR-570.) Details included images–not of books but of a glossy magazine cover, in a nod to Hearst publishing and it’s Skiff reader looking to bridge the technology gap between black and white readers and the need to preserve content layout and design elements in full-color for e-publications.

Steve Sechrist
Senior Analyst and Editor

Here’s the quote directly from the source: "Asus says it has developed a 6in, high-brightness, OLED colour screen that should run for a whopping 122 hours on one battery charge — and that’s not just when displaying text but under real-world conditions, such as running Flash video over its built-in wi-fi or 3G. If that claim stands up, it would make this game-changing device nearly as energy-efficient as today’s monochrome readers."

We think InGear may be a bit off with that 122 hour battery life claim, as most EBRs power is rated by page flips, somewhere in the 7,000 to 9,000 range, with nowhere near +100 hours for most products in the 6-inch class. The category is dominated by E Ink’s Vizplex technology that consumes much lower power (none at all until a page is "turned,") than a constantly emitting OLED display. Although, chip maker Texas Instruments did announce a new (TPS65180) integrated power management IC for EBRs that offers a whopping 14.8K page turns on a 600mAh battery, this (and a lot more) is covered in our January 15 issue of Mobile Display Report (Shameless self promotion–yes, but it does help pay the bills.)

OK, here’s a bit more from the Jan-10 MDR… To get there, TI implemented its low power connectivity that includes their "WiLink 6.0" low-power scanning architecture, that continuously scans for available WLAN access points–with no impact on battery life. The company predicts their system-level power optimization will extend the e-Book idle time to "…nearly four weeks without needing to recharge." So perhaps the 122 hours is a stand-by mode number for the Asus OLED EBR.

But getting back to the announcement, this is not the first time Asus has made headlines (created Blog Buzz) with a next gen product announcement–in the EBR space. In September-09 the company made strong hints at a new 10-inch dual screen EBR that supposedly was using the new PixelQi color display. This hybrid unit was to offer a high speed refresh (to support video) plus deep saturated color to go along with low power daylight readability, in its transflective mode.

Dubbed the "eee-Reader," it became a much anticipated new EBR device from AsusTek, and was conspicuously absent from the Las Vegas confab. While a prototype of the device showed up under glass at CES, we think the product is (at least at this writing) on the shelf back in Taiwan.

But who can blame any company for wanting to "announce and see." The EBR environment is flooded with also ran e-Book readers, each looking to differentiate itself in a race to catch up with Amazon (and to a lesser extent Sony.) This, plus dealing with the yet to be announced Apple Tablet–that now has more buzz going since the company sent out official invites to the Press for a January 27th unveiling in San Francisco.

Perhaps AsusTek is playing it a bit safe in waiting to release any new EBR device. At the same time, the company is drawing a display line in the sand with a new tablet-EBR, by going on record as being firmly in the OLED display camp, a technology unlikely to ship in the new Apple Tablet. To some extent, this may up the expectation level for Apple–or at least blunt the tour de force marketing buzz the company has created around its phantom device.