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Kindle rival Plastic Logic signs up content partners

Plastic Logic names content partners for its digital content reader in anticipation of the device's wide release in 2010.

Dong Ngo SF Labs Manager, Editor / Reviews
CNET editor Dong Ngo has been involved with technology since 2000, starting with testing gadgets and writing code for CNET Labs' benchmarks. He now manages CNET San Francisco Labs, reviews 3D printers, networking/storage devices, and also writes about other topics from online security to new gadgets and how technology impacts the life of people around the world.
Dong Ngo
2 min read
Plastic Logic

It's a day for e-reader news. Along with Amazon.com's Kindle 2 announcement, competitor Plastic Logic revealed the first partners to distribute content on its eReader when the device becomes commercially available sometime in 2010.

The partners include Ingram Digital, LibreDigital, and Zinio, which has more than 1,000 digital magazine titles currently in its stable. USA Today and the Financial Times have also signed on.

The eReader--which is designed to store dozens or hundreds of business documents on a very thin digital reader--is about the size of an 8.5 inch by 11 inch pad of paper and weighs less than most print magazines, according to Plastic Logic.

As the name of the company might suggest, it's made with plastic, not glass, meaning that it is designed to be strong and to be able to stand up to being hit with objects or, presumably, even dropped. Furthermore, the eReader is an open platform that allows content creators to offer their digital content in their own way.

As my colleague Erica Ogg points out, price remains a looming question.

Together with the release of the eReader, Plastic Logic will also launch a content store where users can download digital content from newspapers, magazines, trade journals, blogs, e-books, and so on.

The Mountain View, Calif.-based start-up has been working with a wide range publishers and content creators to ensure a broad variety of content. The company's first partnership in this matter is Fictionwise, an independent e-content retailer.

Plastic Logic plans to make its eReader available in trials and pilots in the second half of 2009, and expects to release the product commercially in 2010.