Irex, a Kindle-Killer That Wasn’t, Reaches the End of Its Story
Confused by the ever-increasing number of Kindle competitors? You may be able to scratch one off the list: E-reader maker Irex has reportedly filed for bankruptcy.
The Dutch company had been producing readers aimed at European business users before entering the U.S. market this spring via distribution deals at Barnes & Noble (BKS) and Best Buy (BBY). But you’d be very hard-pressed to find anyone who bought the $400 DR800SG (read Walt Mossberg’s review of the device).
There is still a flood of e-readers on the way, though: Borders (BGP), for instance, promises to sell at least 10 different brands by the end of the year. But none of them will be produced by Amazon (AMZN) or Apple (AAPL), and it’s going to be hard to persuade customers to buy anything that doesn’t come from one of those two companies.
