There’s no such thing as a two-paned e-ink device in the pipeline at Asustek. Give up the dream, dear reader. Today the company provided information on upcoming product launches, and yet  they were fairly quiet about ereaders. In fact, the one bit of ereader info in the DigiTimes article is attributed to unnamed “industry sources,” and not from Asus’ CEO Jerry Shen:

According to industry sources, the Eee Reader line will include 6-inch and 9-inch models, both featuring a grayscale touchscreen display.

In other words, more of the same.

If you’ve seen the working demo model of the Asus two-screen device, you can see that it’s more closely aligned with netbooks and notebooks, only without a physical keyboard. Asus has always said that their dual-screen device would have color displays and be able to play video, which isn’t a capability with any current e-ink technology that I know of.  Pixel Qi is doing some awesome stuff with their specialized screens, and I’m crossing my fingers that Asus will be using them in their dual-screen device (which actually would make them a new sort of ereader/PC hybrid)–but I have no reason to believe they will.

But my point is that the new ereaders coming soon from Asus are very likely going to be nearly identical in technology as current devices. What we can hope for, in terms of improvements, are lower price points and an open approach to formats.

[Asustek aims to ship 1 million ultra-thin notebooks by end of 2009] [DigiTimes via liliputing]

Let’s say you’ve got $200-500 burning a hole in your pocket and you’re ready to make the leap into dedicated ebook devices. Now you’re wondering, which is the right choice?

The short answer: WAIT. For the love of reading, wait.

There are two companies–Sony and ASUS–that are releasing new devices in the next 6 months that may significantly alter the space, and introduce some real benefits to weigh in your decision. If you can hold out, you may benefit from either a drop in prices or a boost in features. Try to hold out. Update: Here’s more info on what ASUS is planning to drop later this year–it doesn’t look like it’s going to be anything groundbreaking, but it might be cheaper. You should still wait if you can.

But if you can’t? Well, there are a lot of devices to choose from, and all of them have limitations. The best of the lot are the Amazon Kindle and the Sony Reader, but both have real problems when it comes to digital rights management (DRM) and the thorny concept of “ownership” of the books you buy.

The website Chamber 4 has assembled a catalogue of all most ebook devices currently available, as well as a handful of iPhone/iPod Touch apps, and listed their strengths and weaknesses. It’s one of the best side-by-side guides I’ve seen online so far. Skim through it and you’ll likely be in a much better position to make a rational choice on the device (or app) that’s right for you.

But I still think you should wait.

“eReader Comparison” [Chamber 4]
(Image: lumaxart)