Foxit eSlick E-Reader Nears its End

Smaller e-readers are dropping like flies as yet another device maker has announced it will get out of the e-reader hardware business.

Foxit has said it will “cease development” on its eSlick device that was once touted for being among the cheapest in the market and offering excellent support for PDF files. Instead it plans to offer its software to other digital books providers, says Foxit in a press release.

The death of the eSlick comes on the heels of similar news about devices from companies such as Audiovox and Plastic Logic. Price cuts by Amazon and Barnes & Noble, extreme competition and a shift in consumer interest toward more multi-purpose tablets have taken their toll on e-readers.

In contrast, Amazon’s newly revamped Kindle sold out in just days after its launch a week ago.

Since Amazon introduced the first generation Kindle in 2007, e-readers became one of the hottest consumer products. The category attracted more than a dozen companies, all of whom bought a black-and-white screen from E Ink, packaged it into a plastic casing and competed for consumer attention.

Mostly Kindle clones, many of these e-readers were near-identical in how they looked and the features they offered. Smaller e-reader makers also had to contend with Apple’s iPad, which launched in April. The iPad took away some consumers who were looking for features beyond just the ability to read digital books.

Meanwhile, Amazon stormed into a price war dropping the price of the Kindle 2 to $190 from $260 in response to cuts from Barnes & Noble on its Nook e-reader. A latest version of the Kindle with only Wi-Fi capability costs $140, now $10 cheaper than a similar Nook version.

This price war took its toll on smaller e-reader manufacturers. Foxit, which once claimed to have among the cheapest e-reader in the market, has now been left behind. It’s e-book reader with a 6-inch black-and-white E Ink display now costs $200.

For a small company like Foxit clearly cutting price on the eSlick to beat the Kindle is not a sustainable. Not surprisingly, Foxit says it will now focus on licensing its PDF and ePub technology to companies in the e-book market. As e-book sales grow, it is becoming clear that the e-reader category will have just three major brands: Amazon, Barnes & Noble and Sony, and a rival to take them all on: the Apple iPad.

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