After an initial announcement back in May, it looks like Acer is finally ready to make its official debut in the e-reader market. According to Lesen's sources at the company, the LumiRead will make an appearance at the upcoming IFA electronics fair in Berlin next week and then hit German stores in October. Availability in other markets wasn't mentioned but it's likely that other European countries will be getting it shortly as well.
The device is said to come with a 6-inch monochrome (800 x 600) E-Ink display, 2GB of built-in storage, a QWERTY keyboard, a microSD card slot, Wi-Fi and 3G connectivity to download books, a web browser, and an ISBN scanner that lets you scan book codes to purchase online or build a wish-list of titles you want to get in the future. There'll be a large selection of titles available for the device. Content will be delivered through Libri.de in Germany, Barnes & Noble in the U.S. and Founder in China, with deals reportedly being negotiated with French and Italian stores as well.
Formats supported include PDF, ePUB, TXT, HTML, MOBI, RTF, DOC, and CHM, as well as MP3 for audio books. Rumors suggest the LumiRead will be priced at around €250 ($316). That figure has not been confirmed, however, and with the latest Kindle selling for just $189 (or $139 without 3G) Acer will have to adjust its price to stay competitive.