I don’t think this news bodes well for the Readius from Polymer Vision, but we’ll have to see how it pans out. The New York Times has info on the folding eInk device and this commentary from the company’s VP of marketing and sales jumped out at me: he says: "the Readius would be more expensive than the Kindle." Now there’s definitely some cool factor with a device that folds up for your pocket and let’s face it: you can’t use the Kindle as a phone. The Readius will support Bluetooth 2.0, tri-band GSM and dual-band HSDPA/UMTS, so you won’t use the connectivity solely to download content. The WinCE-based device also offers a 16 grayscale display, but only at 320 x 240 on the 5-inch screen.

Of course the upside potential here is that a carrier decides to subsidize and offer the device, which could offset or offload some of the initial cost of the Readius from a consumer point of view. I don’t expect that to happen here in the U.S., but it’s a possibility. And typical of eBook devices, the question of content and DRM come into play; at the moment, there’s very little info on either front. The Times says that England, Italy and Germany will see product availability this fall, while we have to wait for 2009 on this side of the pond. Hopefully between now and then we’ll get some more details on the content side of things; no matter how good an eBook device is from a hardware perpective, it’s only as good as the content and user experience it provides.

(via MobileRead)