Sunday, April 5, 2009

Fujitsu Launches First Color E-Book Reader in Japan

(Book Business Magazine, April 3, 2009)
Japanese electronics company Fujitsu has launched the world's first color e-paper e-book reader. The Flepia is available for purchase in Japan through Fujitsu's "FrontechDirect" online store for approximately $1,000. The device will begin shipping April 20.

The Flepia, which weighs 385g and is 12.5mm thick, features an 8-inch touch display screen capable of showing up to 260,000 colors in high definition. It enables 40 hours of continuous battery operation when fully charged, and does not require power for continuous display of a screen image. When used with a 4GB SD card, the device can store the equivalent of approximately 5,000 300-page print books.

Equipped with Bluetooth and high-speed wireless LAN, Flepia users may purchase e-books from Papyless, Japan's largest e-book online retailer, and download them directly to the e-reader.

According to Fujitsu, the company hopes to sell 50,000 units by the end of 2010.

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