PROS:

* Direct access to Google's eBook service

* Pricing at $140

CONS:

* No touch-screen

* Not multi-color

iriver Ltd., the South Korean company known for digital MP3 players, will start selling the iriver Story HD e-reader for US$140 this Sunday.

While Google's eBooks service has been available on desktops, laptops, iPads and other tablets (through apps), the Story HD will be the first e-reader to connect to the Google eBookstore to download digital books using Wi-Fi. e-Readers that support Adobe Digital Editions can load Google eBooks from a desktop, but, unlike the Story HD, they can't download them directly onto the device.

Initially available in Target stores in the U.S., the Story HD is not the high resolution, multi-color device for playing HD movies or videos (just wait for the iPad 2 HD reportedly coming this fall if you want to do just that).

The Story HD aims to differentiate itself from other e-readers with a 6-inch, 768-by-1024 resolution display, which according to the company provides 63.8 percent more pixels and faster page turns than the competition. It has Wi-Fi connectivity and a sizable black-and-white e-ink screen. The Story HD has three weeks of battery life, and support for both ePUB and PDF formats.

iriver will be facing stiff competition in the market. Barnes & Noble recently launched the Nook touch screen for US$139. Kobo also put to shelves the eReader Touch Edition for US$130. Amazon is offering its Kindle With Special Offers for US$114, selling US$25 less than its Kindle counterparts because it is ad-subsidized.

Both the Kindle and the Story HD do not have a touch-screen.

iriver unveiled the Story HD at the CES 2011 in January this year.It said that iStory HD provides outstanding legibility with crisp fonts, fast response and high performance with an advanced i.MX508 eReader applications processor from Freescale Semiconductor based on ARM Cortex technology and automatic, built-in Wi-Fi.

The Story HD will also be equipped with the Easy Wi-Fi Network (http://www.easywifi.com/) feature so that users can access any open or subscribed Wi-Fi hot spots automatically without log-in process.

"No other eBook features a higher resolution, and users will appreciate fast page-turn performance and the chic design that is the hallmark of iriver," said Chulmin Lee, COO of iriver Ltd., in January.

According to iriver, the slim and lightweight e-reader features the signature; sleek, iriver style, QWERTY keypad, a curve with two-tone colors at the front and back for easy grip and slim design. The Story HD has buttons located from the side to the center of the keypad, featuring the up/down layout instead of the right/left design to make the unit more user friendly than other eBooks - other models feature the right/left buttons for flipping pages.

Color Nook is tops in market

Research firm IDC said last week that in the first quarter, for the first time ever, Barnes & Noble's NOOK Color lead the e-reader pack ahead of Amazon's Kindle in the worldwide e-reader market. Amazon's Kindle was second, but the lack of a color offering has clearly impacted the company's previous dominance in the e-reader or eReader market.

IDC forecasts the worldwide e-reader market to ship 16.2 million units in 2011, a 24% increase over 2010.

IDC also said last week that media tablets (iPad and its rivals) will experience a five-year compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 54% in Asia/Pacific excluding Japan (APEJ) region, multiplying nearly ten times to 21 million units from 2 million units shipped in 2010. IDC expects more consumers to adopt media tablets to hit gaming, Web-browsing, and social networking needs on the go.

E-readers on the other hand, will carry a lower 18% CAGR as eReader are limited to a single function, one that media tablets cover anyways. In fact, media tablets offer a better reading experience with color display for magazine content, IDC said.

"Lack of localized content is an issue for eReaders in APEJ. In China for example, some consumers are still relying on pirated Internet downloads. Online bookstores haven't been earning device vendors wide margins on content, and face aggressive iPad pricing, squeezing them further," says Dickie Chang, Senior Market Analyst for Client Devices Research at IDC Asia/Pacific.

RELATED STORIES