Acer LumiRead to Make IFA Debut: €250 Pricetag Rumored

SlashGear: "Acer’s LumiRead ereader will make its official debut at IFA 2010 next week, according to Lesen‘s sources at the company, with a commercial launch – in Germany at least – following on in September. As with the Amazon Kindle, a second source suggests, the LumiRead will come with free 3G access to download new ebooks, and a sticker price of around €250 ($318). That’s considerably higher than what Amazon and the rest of the ereader market leaders are offering their devices for.  Acer are hoping to differentiate themselves with their ISBN-scanner, which can be used to build up a wish-list of titles owners intend to buy in the future."

Acer LumiRead television ad (in German):

FCC Approves Acer LumiRead E-Reader

Bottom line, no 3G. From UberGizmo:

The FCC has just approved Acer's upcoming LumiRead e-reader, although the papers did not include pictures as well as a user manual, so there is no way to garner additional information unless you work in the FCC itself and decide to spill the beans (at your career's peril, of course). What has been confirmed though is this will be a WiFi-enabled model, missing out on 3G connectivity at the moment. With the FCC approvals in the bag, it won't be long before you start to hear of promotional materials as well as ads concerning the Acer LumiRead. Hopefully the back-end support system is solid enough to prop up the hardware.

Acer LumiRead eReader Due Third Quarter

From SlashGear:

Packing a 6-inch monochrome E Ink display and a Kindle-style QWERTY keyboard, the LumiRead has WiFi – and 3G in a future model – together with an ISBN scanner that can be used to keep a wish-list of titles for future purchase.

There’s also 2GB of onboard storage – good, Acer say, for around 1,500 ebook titles – together with a microSD card slot. It’s also DLNA compliant, which means you can use it to stream music from Acer’s clear.fi system or a third-party streaming system.

As for content, Acer has apparently inked deals with Barnes & Noble in the US, Libri.de in Germany and Founder in China. You can also go online with the built-in browser, and save a local version of pages for reading later when you’ve no connection. No word on pricing, but the Acer LumiRead is apparently due to arrive in Q3 2010.

Note: The two current prototypes, monochrome e-Ink and color LCD, are only a few millimeters thick. The firm has said nothing about pricing. Why they are bothering with a WiFi based model and not jumping directly to 3G in the first iteration is beyond me. Of course, given the Beijing connection, all books will be heavily censored. ;-)