Irex is the second e-book reader company to join up with Barnes & Noble (BKS); earlier this summer Plastic Logic made a similar announcement. Neither company has a product that’s actually on the U.S. market.

Plastic Logic says its device, which it showed off at the D7 conference in late May, will go on sale next year; Irex sells machines in Europe, but hasn’t demoed its newest gadget in the U.S. yet. Its says its newest reader will feature an 8.1-inch touchscreen and a 3G wireless connection.

Irex doesn’t spell it out, but suggests that the relationship with the bookseller won’t be exclusive. Canned quote from Kevin Hamilton, North American CEO of Irex Technologies: “We will change the dynamics of the consumer market–users want to easily purchase content from a variety of sources and we allow them to read it on an IREX eReader as well as other devices.”

The announcement is one of a series we’ve seen this summer as would-be rivals to Amazon’s Kindle try to gear up for a big push against the market leader. The jostling for position includes competing boasts about whose bookstore is bigger and whose is more open.

Part of me thinks this is all for naught since Amazon has moved so far ahead of the pack already. And part of me thinks the e-book industry remains wide open since it’s still so very small and undefined. And it’s entirely possible that the e-book market won’t be dominated by single-use products like the Kindle, but will end up being driven by smartphones like Apple’s (AAPL) iPhone.

Sony (SNE), meanwhile, has already introduced a new line of readers this month and has another product announcement set for Tuesday morning in New York. I’ll drop by that one and report back….

[Image credit: sapphireblue]

At least it was yesterday, when the LA Times checked in on Flickr’s stats; at the time, Apple (AAPL)’s handset had passed the Canon (CAJ) EOS Digital Rebel XTi as the most popular camera on Yahoo’s (YHOO) photo site. The stats are updated daily, though, and as of this afternoon, the Canon had pulled back in front by a few hundred users.

But the precise numbers don’t matter. The takeaway here is that people who like taking and sharing photos are happy to use an inferior camera–even the newest iPhone sports just three megapixels and lacks rudimentary features like zoom and flash–if it’s easy to use. And most important, if it’s already on the phone they’re carrying around.

I’m not the first to point this out, but I’ll reiterate: There are important/worrisome lessons here for other gadget makers.

Cisco’s (CSCO)’s Flip camera line, for instance, is great, and I used my Mino HD twice today for interviews. But if I was carrying around an iPhone 3GS or any other handset with video-recording capabilities, I’m not sure that I would have packed the Flip. And I’d probably end up filming a lot more interviews if my camera was always with me.

Same goes for Amazon’s (AMZN) Kindle, or any other would-be e-book reader: I appreciate that they’re designed specifically for reading and boast low-power screens that are easy on the eyes, hold up well in variable light, etc. But I read a newsstand’s worth of copy every day on my rudimentary BlackBerrry 8830, which isn’t designed for that at all; plenty of iPhone fans say they’re happy reading full-length novels on their gadgets.

That doesn’t mean that people who are passionate about cameras or novels or whatever won’t prefer specialized devices. But that leaves a very big chunk of the market–those of us who find that good enough is plenty good–for the iPhone or any other all-in-one tool.

[Image credit: Erik Pitti]

It’s part of Gartner’s annual “Hype Cycle for Emerging Technologies” report, which is basically a fancy version of one of those “What’s Hot in 2009″ issues that magazines like Entertainment Weekly put out (EW is still around, right?).  Gartner has been pumping these out since 2005, and if nothing else, they’re fun to look at. Click the chart to enlarge:

The gist, as I understand it, is pretty straightforward: The promise of new technology moves much faster than the technology itself, which means that expectations get inflated, then deflated, before the technology eventually becomes mainstream (if it ever does). Can’t tell you what methodology Gartner uses to assemble the chart, but I have a hunch that you could figure out the top of the expectations peak with a simple Google (GOOG) search.

Of course, even though the chart looks cool, there’s more art than science here. As Reuters points out, Gartner’s 2006 report told us that Web 2.0 would would go mainstream by 2008. Today, Gartner tells us that Web 2.0 is still another two-to-five years away from breaking big. Meanwhile, be advised that we still have more than a decade before “human augmentation” plays in Peoria.

And I’m still not sure what it is, exactly, that you’re supposed to do with this knowledge. Should Amazon (AMZN) be psyched or worried that e-book readers have reached the top of the hype cycle? If the tablet computer is already climbing up the “Slope of Enlightenment,” does that mean Apple’s (AAPL) presumed-to-be iWant is already late to the party?

But who cares? I love the terminology. I always imagine that the “Trough of Disillusionment” can be found somewhere near the horse latitudes, or perhaps the Fortress of Solitude.

Here’s the text of his mea culpa, posted at a company-hosted bulletin board:

This is an apology for the way we previously handled illegally sold copies of 1984 and other novels on Kindle. Our “solution” to the problem was stupid, thoughtless, and painfully out of line with our principles. It is wholly self-inflicted, and we deserve the criticism we’ve received. We will use the scar tissue from this painful mistake to help make better decisions going forward, ones that match our mission.

With deep apology to our customers,

Jeff Bezos
Founder & CEO
Amazon.com

If you’re feeling petty, you can note that this apology took six days to arrive. But that would make you petty. A bigger person would say that Bezos’ self-flagellation is pitch-perfect in every aspect and a rare admission of fallibility from an American leader.

Great, right?

Almost. Now all we need is for Amazon (AMZN) to promise that it won’t go into your Kindle and take away something you bought, ever again. But the e-commerce giant won’t say that.

Instead, it’s left open a big, worrisome loophole that it refuses to close. Amazon says it won’t forcibly remove your content from your Kindle “in these circumstances.” But it won’t say what circumstances would prompt it to take back product it’s sold.

That’s dumb. And doubly so coming from Amazon, a company that succeeds in large part because of its well-deserved reputation for kick-ass customer service.

And let’s be honest: Very few Kindle buyers are worried about losing their e-books in the middle of the night. And if Amazon wants to reserve the right to do this again, for specific reasons, well, that’s cool, too. Just spell it out, one way or another, and we can all move on.

Privately held Plastic Logic says it will rely on AT&T (T) to supply its gadgets with a wireless connection, in the same way that Sprint (S) is the network provider for Amazon’s Kindle.

It’s the second big partnership Plastic Logic has unveiled this week; yesterday, it linked up with Barnes & Noble (BKS), which will be its virtual bookstore. I’m guessing it’s not a coincidence that Amazon (AMZN) announces its earnings Thursday afternoon.

Even if Plastic Logic’s reader becomes as successful as the Kindle, it’s unlikely this will be hugely significant for AT&T, the wireless company iPhone users love to complain about.

Each Apple (AAPL) phone on AT&T’s network represents $30 in monthly data charges alone, plus fees for a voice plan. But while Sprint and Amazon haven’t disclosed their terms, it’s estimated that Amazon pays Sprint something like $2 per Kindle user, per month.

One of the chief selling points of Amazon’s (AMZN) Kindle is that once you’ve paid $359 or more for the e-book reader, you can start recouping your investment by buying digital books for much less than it costs to buy their physical counterparts. And the vast majority of Kindle downloads are indeed priced at $9.99 or less (and a third of them are freebies):

Digital books should be higher-margin products than physical ones since the cost to produce and distribute them is so much lower. And they will generate higher margins eventually. But right now, Amazon is subsidizing the cost of those $9.99 books, which means they’re just barely profitable.

Bernstein analysts Claudio Aspesi and Jeffrey Lindsay estimate that Jeff Bezos and company record an operating profit of 61 cents on each $9.99 e-book they sell. But a $24.95 hardcover generates $4.25 in operating profit. That’s a 7 to 1 ratio, and that can’t continue, indefinitely.

The good news: Aspesi and Lindsay argue that Bezos doesn’t have to raise his prices by that much to make his e-books much more profitable. Bumping up best-seller prices from $9.99 to $12.50 would boost his profits from 6 to 20 percent per book, they estimate. The flip side: Costs for the devices themselves will certainly go down.

Expect a new large-format device that’s optimized for reading newspapers and magazines.

Here’s the full text of the invitation that just showed up in my inbox: “We’d like to invite you to an Amazon.com press conference scheduled for Wednesday, May 6 at 10:30 am ET. The press conference is scheduled to take place at the Michael Schimmel Center for the Arts at Pace University, located at 3 Spruce Street, New York City. Doors will open for registration at 9:30 am ET.”

Say this for whoever’s organizing Amazon’s product announcements–they’ve got a nice sense of whimsy. Amazon (AMZN) showed off Kindle 2.0 at the Morgan Library. And Pace University, located just next to the Brooklyn Bridge, sits on the site of the New York Times’s (NYT) 19th-century headquarters building. The Times, according to the Times, is partnering with Amazon on the new gadget.

UPDATE: There is another, more obvious, reason to have the event at Pace, according to the Wall Street Journal. The university is one of 6 schools that will be working with Amazon to test textbooks on the new devices, the paper says. The others: Case Western, Princeton University, Reed College, Darden School at the University of Virginia, and Arizona State University.

Amazon currently sells a subscription to the Times for $14 a month. That version has fewer features than the paper’s free Web site–no video, no color photography, and just one update a day–but some of the early-adopting Kindle users seem to like it. In February, the paper said Kindle subscriptions were a “modest” business.

Amazon is one of several players with plans for a new, large-format device that’s supposedly optimized for newspapers and magazines. News Corp. (NWS), which owns this Web site, has said it’s interested, and fellow publisher Hearst is already working on its own. And here’s a list of entrants you haven’t heard of.

Can a new Kindle–or any other device–reverse the fortunes of the print publishing industry? Nope: It doesn’t matter how you deliver the information if you can’t afford to generate it in the first place. And the industry’s more sober executives understand that.

But if Kindle-like devices really do take off, they will be a natural platform for whatever version of the publishing industry survives. The question facing publishers: Do you try to create your own platform from scratch so you can control your own distribution? Or hop aboard the industry leader and accept that you may end up in the position the music business is in, where one outlet–Apple’s iTunes (AAPL) store–dominates the business?

And you weren’t shy! And by the time I was done tallying your crowd-sourced tips, I had a pretty comprehensive list of everyone who plans to make, or is rumored to be making, a competitor to Amazon’s (AMZN) Kindle. But many of you were sure that News Corp. (NWS) must be talking to iRex Technologies, the Dutch company that is already producing a line of Kindle rivals under the “Iliad” brand.

And you were correct, says iRex CEO Hans Brons. iRex plans to sell its devices in the U.S. using a “private label” strategy–it will make the readers but sell them under someone else’s brand–and it has talked to News Corp. about the possibility, he says.

But to be clear, Brons isn’t saying his company has a deal with News Corp. (which owns Dow Jones, the owner of this Web site). For the record: “It is definitely a logical path, and a logical conclusion, but I cannot confirm that we are working with News Corp.,” he says.

Fair enough. And no comment from News Corp. But imagine that iRex did end up building something for Murdoch and company. What would it look like?

A lot like the one Murdoch described earlier this month: iRex has a machine in the pipeline that will feature a big screen and full color, Brons said. The difference between his color screen and those of his competitors? Most of the latter take the e-Ink technology that powers the Kindle and Sony’s (SNE) Reader and add a color filter on top of that. That reduces the brightness of the screen, Brons said. But he promises that the iRex color screen, which he hopes will be on the market in 2010, will solve that problem.

And if News Corp. doesn’t do a deal with iRex? Well, as I mentioned above, there is no shortage of folks working on would-be Kindle killers. Thanks again to readers who helped me round up this list:

Fujitsu–Already selling an e-reader with color e-paper

Bridgestone–Also has a color display

Endless Ideas–Dutch company behind the black-and-white BeBook reader

Samsung–Its Papyrus reader features a touchscreen

Pixel Qi–Start-up focused on making cheap color screens; run by Mary Lou Jepsen, former CTO of the One Laptop Per Child project

Anyone else I should be looking at? Let me know.

Then you’re in the minority: Most folks are choosing Amazon’s (AMZN) device, even though Sony’s (SNE) sells for $60 less. Sony’s newest gambit to change that: A tie-up with Google (GOOG) that will add half a million free titles to the Sony’s book catalog.

The deal, announced this morning, will give Sony a catalog with some 600,000 titles — more than twice the number that Kindle sells. But given that these are public domain titles that anyone can sell, I’m not sure that this will do much for Sony. From the release:

“Books from Google will feature an extensive list of traditional favorites, including “The Awakening,” “A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court,” and “Black Beauty,” as well as a number of items that can be more difficult for people to access. For example, literature lovers can find and read The Letters of Jane Austen in addition to “Sense and Sensibility” and “Emma.” Also included are a number of titles in French, German, Italian, Spanish and other languages. People can search the full text of the collection, or they can browse by subject, author, or featured titles.

Give Sony props for rolling out an e-book reader well before Amazon did. But the Kindle has a huge marketing advantage over the Reader — the Sony product has yet to appear on the cover of Newsweek or The Daily Show, and it’s doubtful it ever will. More important, the Kindle has features the Reader can’t match — namely, the ability to download books and other stuff wirelessly.

All of which makes it hard to see the upside in Sony continuing to plow resources into this one — especially when it has more important battles to fight.