Plastic Logic Que E-Reader Dies

As we predicted it months ago, there is no hope for Que E-reader after all. Plastic Logic’s presentation at DEMO was very powerful and interesting. Many were pulling for Plastic Logic to debut its e-reader to compete alongside Kindle and other top e-readers. Unfortunately, Plastic Logic dropped the ball too many times for its e-reader to survive. The company was very slow to the market, to say the least. By the time Plastic Logic Que E-reader was announced, the e-reader market had already moved on.

It no longer makes sense for us to move forward with our first generation electronic reader. It was a hard decision, but is the best one for our company, our investors and our customers,

said Richard Archulet, CEO, Plastic Logic. This is not to say that the company has any intent of giving up. But it does need to do some re-organization if it wants to have any hope of making it in this business. The technology developed by Plastic Logic is still very interesting. Unfortunately, the e-reader market does not have a place for players that are slow to the market.

Plastic Logic focused too much on hardware when other players (such as Amazon and B&N) turned their attention to the software side of things. The pricing strategy adopted by this company was abysmal too. Going after perfection was a big mistake too. While Amazon prepares to produce more hardware to the market, Que Reader dies a quick (or slow depending on your perspective) death.

This was a hard decision, but is the best one for our company, our investors and our customers.

Can Plastic Logic bounce back from this? Unlikely, but we hope so.