Amazon might have lowered the price bar even further with the new version of the Kindle, but Copia is taking things further with a $99 e-book reader to launch this year.
According to the Wall Street Journal, the 5-inch Ocean Reader with a color touchscreen will be released this fall before the holiday season. Six- and nine-inch variants are expected to eventually launch with Wi-Fi and 3G support as well.
A big focus for Copia’s e-readers, which supports the ePub format, is social networking with direct feeds from Facebook and Twitter. Copia also describes itself as the “first social eReading experience.”
It’s refreshing to finally see e-book readers being marked with reasonable prices. But again, is it worth paying a hundred bucks or more for a device without multiple functions with the evolution of tablet computers? Yet, if all a particular consumer wants an e-reader for is actual reading, then a smaller and cheaper model like this one might have its place.
