After being shown off first at CES and given an April release date, Plastic Logic delayed their e-reader in March and then again in June frustrating would-be owners who pre-ordered as early as February.
In late June, the company cancelled all pre-orders, making it very clear that the company was in trouble.
Today, Plastic Logic has announced that they are completely canceling all plans for the Que, due to increased competition from Apple, Barnes & Noble and Amazon.
“This was a hard decision, but is the best one for our company, our investors and our customers,” said Plastic Logic CEO Richard Archuleta of the decision.
“We recognize the market has dramatically changed, and with the product delays we have experienced, it no longer makes sense for us to move forward with our first generation electronic reading product.”
Differentiating the QUE from other e-reader was the fact it was aimed at the businessman demographic. The device would have retailed for $650 for the 4GB/Wi-Fi model and $800 for the 8GB/Wi-Fi/3G version. The Que featured a large 10.7-inch screen, and had built-in support for Microsoft Office documents as well as PDFs.
Result for: investor
Amazon has announced it will purchase the popular site Woot.com, the site that became famous for selling just one item at a time, usually at a large discount from its normal prices.
Retailers use sites like Woot to either dump excess inventory or introduce new customers to their brand of products.
Consumers, on the other hand, get the thrill of racing other would-be buyers for a sharply discounted item.
Woot launched in 2004 and now has 2.75 million registered users. The site sells all types of items, but mostly electronics. For example, today’s Woot item is the Apple iPod Nano 8GB, 5th Generation , selling for $99 USD, a big discount from even Amazon, which has the same item listed at $125.
Amazon was Woot’s only outside investor, when they bought a piece in 2006.
The NYTimes explains that Woot is also a wholesale distributor, which distributes to Target, Amazon, and others.
Result for: investor
Ubisoft, the games publisher behind the new “always on” DRM, has disappointed investors this week, reporting an almost 18 percent slide in revenue for the fiscal year.
For the year, the company posted sales of $1.1 billion, and a net loss of $54 million.
The loss was mainly due to increases in R&D, which rose to $376 million, up 36 percent year-on-year.
Ubi says its top selling game was Assassin’s Creed II (which uses the controversial DRM) and moved 9 million units since launch.
Additionally, Ubi saw its market share in North America rise to 6.8 percent from 5.3 percent last fiscal year. Despite the growth, the overall market, which remains in turmoil, has not helped with ongoing sales, concedes CEO Yves Guillemot: “The global economic crisis had a pronounced impact on the video game industry in 2009, which contracted by nearly 10 per cent year-on-year. Ubisoft’s sales were hit particularly hard, falling 18 per cent over the full year despite a stabilisation in the second half of the year, when figures came in on a par with the corresponding period of 2008-09. This overall contraction in sales, combined with additional write-downs recorded for games already launched as well as for upcoming releases, led to a €60 million operating loss.”
Despite significant backlash for their DRM scheme, Guillemot sees a strong 2010-2011 fiscal year: “We forecast a return to profitable growth in 2010-11 with positive cash flow generation, driven by a games line-up that is more closely tailored to growth segments and based on strong franchises.We also expect to see the first concrete results from our investments in on-line games and services. Lastly, the upcoming launches of new consoles, including Natal and Sony Move, should enable us to capitalise on the technology investments that we have undertaken in recent years and re-energize the casual games segment. At the same time, we will continue to reorganize our studios and enhance our development teams’ productivity.”
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