ASUS to Launch Three E-Readers by Year's End

It seems that the e-reader market is just about ready to surge, with a variety of devices having made their way into the world during the 2010 International Consumer Electronics Show and afterwards. Amazon's Kindle is looking ready to face some competition and companies are still considering new e-paper devices. One such company is ASUS, which reportedly plans to introduce three distinct e-readers during 2010.

Register Hardware reports that, “Asus has clarified plans for an e-book reader rollout, telling Register Hardware that it will launch three models in the UK this year.” One of the devices is the color e-reader DR-570, which was discovered prior to the report. To this device will be added those dubbed DR-950 and DR-750.

The DR-570 was described as a device built with a 6-inch OLED color display and capabilities for flash playback. While this is a feat in itself, the product was also said to be capable of running for about 122 hours, even if extensively used. Details have now surfaced on the DR-950, a device that will be capable of reading PDF and ePub file formats.

Set to measure 9 inches, this model will have an e-ink touchscreen with a resolution of 768 x 1024 and capable of displaying contents in 16 shades of gray. The product also has a text-to-speech functionality, web-browsing capabilities and handwriting recognition. The device will even sport a 3.5mm headphone socket and will have 4GB of built-in storage. It will connect to the Internet through either 3.5G or 802.11g.

ASUS is also planning to launch a 5.7-inch, monochrome model of the e-reader. While no clear release date has been given, it was stated that this product would come out before the color DR-570. No details on the build and capabilities of the 5.7-inch are currently known.

In fact, most details remain a mystery, but the company supposedly plans on launching the color e-book reader DR-570 in the fourth quarter of the ongoing year. This means that the 5.7-inch monochrome device may come out even before Q4.