Creative Technology supposedly readying new e-reader

Jake Widman
Tuesday, 03 November 2009 03:00

Your IT - Mobility

The burgeoning market for e-book readers is about to become even more crowded, as Creative Technology demonstrated its MediaBook reader to attendees at its Annual General Meeting.

The e-book reader market has mostly been the province of Amazon's Kindle and Sony's Digital Reader.

But in recent weeks, those devices have been joined by Barnes & Noble's new dual-screen Nook, while Spring Design announced the similar Alex. And rumors continue to fly about a new Apple tablet device that would have e-reader capabilities as well.

Now, according to Creative fansite EpiZenter , the MP3 and pocket video camera maker is almost ready to introduce its MediaBook and showed the device at its shareholders' meeting.

The device supposedly will also connect to the Internet to serve as a multimedia player. Rather than being "just another electronic device which displays books in text" like the Kindle, the report says the MediaBook will combine "videos, pictures, text and services in one device that supports a media-rich experience," according to Creative VP Willie Png.

Creative, based in Singapore, is reportedly working with ten international and local publishers to supply content, from books to periodicals to textbooks.

One possible partner mentioned is Singapore Press Holdings, publisher of 17 newspapers and more than 100 magazines in Singapore.

Singapore's Media Development Authority has already made Creative part of its FutureBooks program, which would give the MediaBook official support and funding on the island. From there, the company is expected to expand its market to China and other countries in the region, and also to the United States.