Bookeen Cybook Odyssey E-Reader Formally Announced

Amazon got attention recently with a new batch of e-readers, but the party will grow soon, as Bookeen also has a device in the pipeline, one that has the latest type of e-paper from E Ink. 

By now, many users will have come to know of the fact that E Ink is the company that makes the displays used by e-readers.

In other words, Amazon, Barnes and Noble, Kobo and Sony are all customers of this company, as they all manufacture e-readers.

In that order, the companies offer the Kindle, Nook, Kobo and Sony readers, respectively.

Now, Bookeen is adding its name to that list, much like Pandigital did with the SuperNova, although the latter borders on tablet-hood (it even has a color display).

What Bookeen announced is the Cybook Odyssey, similar to most of the above (the greyscale models at least) in at least one respect.

That feature is the display itself, a Pearl E Ink panel with a diagonal of 6 inches.

Pearl is the newest e-paper that E Ink made and has higher brightness, clarity and is overall better than all predecessors.

Another asset that Bookeen made a point of mentioning is touch support (the Neonode zForce touchscreen is utilized, or so The Digital Reader speculates).

The fact that Kindle, Sony Reader and Kobo all have the Neonode as well does appear to suggest this is the case.

Either way, everything will become clear once the Odyssey starts selling, in the next few weeks.

Unfortunately, the price was not mentioned, but users can at least know what to expect hardware-wise, what with the 800 MHz Cortex A8 ARM CPU, WiFi support, page buttons and web browser.

Of course, Amazon's aggressive low-price strategy might turn out to be tricky to deal with. Time will be the judge of just what comes of all this.