Google partners with iriver to release e-book reader
Lately, it seems like Google has been trying to compete with everyone. Android competes with iOS, Google Music competes with Amazon Cloud Player and iTunes, and Google+ competes with Facebook. And according to a blog post from earlier today, Google is also going to go head to head with the Amazon Kindle.
The device they chose for this battle is the Story HD, an e-reader announced back at CES this year. Its manufacturer is iriver, a company many of you may remember from the days of PMPs.
The Story HD looks very similar to the Kindle, with a QWERTY keyboard, ARM Cortex processor, and a 6 in. 768 x 1024 e-ink display. It also includes WiFi for downloading books and a relatively short 3 weeks of battery life with WiFi off.
Interestingly, this device does not appear to be running Android. Instead, its connection with Google is that it uses the Google eBooks platform as its only source of content. Considering that the Google Books store is considerably smaller than the Amazon bookstore, the Story HD will have to have some compelling hardware to convince users to choose it over a Kindle.
As the first e-ink device to support the Google Book store, it could be popular for the minority of users who predominantly use the Google Book store (of which I am one.) However, I am still not sure if that is enough to make this tablet successful, but it is still nice to have it out there. If you are interested, you can pick up the device at Target on July 17.
[Google+Blog%29″ target=”_self”>Google Blog | Press Release]
