Creative Zii To Join Nook, QUE, Alex, Kindle In E-reader Market

If true, the company will join a long list of e-readers, including Barnes & Noble's Nook, Plastic Logic's QUE, Spring Design's Alex, Sony's Reader and Amazon's Kindle.

Online Creative fan site epiZENter late Friday wrote that Creative used its annual general meeting last week to discuss plans to enter the e-reader market.

The company showed a working prototype of the Creative Zii MediaBook and said it hopes to differentiate it from the other e-readers in the market with additional features, including a touch screen, a text-to-speech function and an SD memory card slot, according to epiZENter.

The entire epiZENter center story can be read by clicking here.

epiZENter also wrote that the Creative Zii MediaBook will include videos, pictures, text and services to offer a media-rich experience and is already in talks with 10 international and Singapore-based publishers about content for the device.

Creative currently produces electronic dictionaries and is working with Singapore's Ministry of Education, which epiZENter wrote could point to a possible future for the Creative Zii MediaBook as a replacement for traditional textbooks.

However, epiZENter also wrote that the device would also probably work with social networking sites like Facebook and Twitter.

Barnes & Noble last month unveiled its Nook e-reader, a dual-screen device based on Google Android technology and an E-Ink display that allows the downloading, reading and sharing of free and paid-for e-books.

Last month also saw the introduction of Plastic Logic's QUE proReader e-reader, which is targeting business users by providing news and financial information and the ability to work with Microsoft's Word, PowerPoint and Excel applications.

Spring Design last month also introduced its Alex e-reader, a Google Android-based device for professional, educational and entertainment markets.

Sony is also starting to show its upcoming Reader Daily Edition, which has a 7-inch touch display and includes free 3G broadband access for browsing Sony-specified sites for on-the-go content, as well as USB connectivity for downloading other reading materials. The Sony device is slated to be released in December.

The Amazon Kindle, which sparked the recent interest in e-readers, remains the device against which the others are measured.