The Digital Reader

I’m sure you recall that Skiff, a digital magazine platform and e-reader, were sold to Newscorp about a month ago. One curious detail about the sale was that the e-reader wasn’t sold; just the company and platform that supported it.

Most people assumed that the e-reader was dead. That was a pretty safe assumption, but I wanted to follow up and make sure. While the Skiff e-reader needed the Skiff distribution platform in order to function well, but this doesn’t mean that they have to be owned by the same company.  So the e-reader might not have been dead.

But it is dead (for now, at least). Here’s the official statement from Sprint (the Skiff e-reader was going to work on their network):

• We remain excited about the growth opportunities in the e-reader and publishing space and continue to look forward to working with Skiff, and now News Corp to deliver innovative, leading-edge solutions that will transform the publishing industry.
• This acquisition will have no material impacts to Sprint’s 2010 projected results.
• Sprint continues to be a committed leader in the M2M space – we have certified hundreds of unique M2M devices and are supporting millions of their subscribers on Sprint’s dependable network. Sprint takes great pride in the value we deliver to our partners through our network, our people, our willingness to collaborate, and our distribution channels. We continue to prove our commitment to M2M, examples:

1.       We have more than 10 years of experience in this space.

2.       In Oct. 2009, we announced the formation of our Emerging Solutions Group.

3.       We are open to a variety of business models that will be mutually beneficial for us and our partners, including opening up our retail stores to innovative and transformative services and devices.