Startup firm Plastic Logic scheduled the release of an e-book reader for the first half of 2009, with the possible intention of competing with Amazon's Kindle reader. The aim of the device is to “reduce the amount of paper that business users have to carry around with them,” according to Information Week.

The reader is the size and thickness of an 8.5"x11" pad of paper and is geared towards reading business reports, marketing content, public relations data, books and magazines. Plastic Logic CEO Richard Archuleta said that the device was designed for professionals who “read more business content than recreational content,” reported Information Week.

It uses electronic ink to provide a display that resembles paper and restrains from using glass on the display so that it is “tougher than a notebook computer”, according to Information Week. The device is thin and light since the logic is implanted in plastic and not silicon.

Business document formats that are supported include Microsoft (Word, Excel and PowerPoint), Adobe PDF, periodicals and books. The reader has a “gesture-based” touch screen user interface and tools that will permit to organise and manage data. Documents can be annotated by using the touch-screen or by writing short notes with the help of a pop-up software keyboard. In addition, it allows the option of being connected either wired or wirelessly, according to Information Week.

The technology, whose name is still not known, was unraveled at the DEMOFall 08 conference, where the display was seen to have “good-quality” grayscale graphics and to shift faster than on Kindle.

In over a week, Plastic Logic planned to open a factory in Dresden, Germany, in order to start manufacturing the plastic electronics.