COOL-ER ereader at the show
By Paul Biba
Stopped by their booth, which is certainly innovative, to take a look at the reader. It is a nice unit. Very light and feels good in the hand. The tell me that EPUB is what they are betting on for the future. It is available in 8 colors, which is sort of fun, and will retail for $249. They are now going into full production and units should be available in the first week of June. Users can share books purchased from the Coolerbooks website with up to five other readers. Here are a few shots:
May 29th, 2009 at 10:33 am
Looks like a good ereader! Never thought I’d see the day when women in bathing suits would help promote ebook devices though.
I just hope they are right about ePub.
May 29th, 2009 at 2:56 pm
Is the demographic of BEA largely males because womenin bathing suits rarely move other women to buy anything.
May 30th, 2009 at 8:35 pm
Jane,
I am with you. I keep seeing photos like this for tech related conferences/shows and I have to ask myself what century am I living in? Is it that women don’t attend?
Ellen
May 31st, 2009 at 6:29 am
Hey, you’re dealing with what’s essentially still a male-dominated industry… that apparently don’t know how to study marketing data or demographics. No surprise they think scantily-clad women will sell everything–not to mention, they know providing non-famous eye-candy is cheap, and requires no real effort on their part.
This is pretty typical of early efforts to sell almost anything, before companies put serious effort into really studying their target market, and trying to get really innovative in selling. (That’s when you’ll see sort-of-relevant authors and C-list actors, fancy multimedia presentations, and elaborate giveaways designed to drag customers in.)
On the other hand… maybe they thought there would be some lesbians at the show…