Remember Plastic Logic, the Cambridge, England, e-reader maker whose long-awaited first-generation device never came to market and was finally benched in 2010?
Having taken a $150 million investment from a Russian government venture capital arm, we now know where the firm’s technology may finally end up…
Rusnano, which make the investment, has demonstrated the e-readers to prime minister Putin and emerged with a Ministry Of Education agreement for a trial in which 1,000 of the devices will be issued to schools for storing electronic textbooks on.
The trial is being conducted with safety in mind. “There is not even the glass on the screen” and nothing will happen “even if students decide to fight with each other via computer,” Putin has apparently remarked, according to Vedomosti.
The per device price is 12,000 rubles ($415) but could be reduced for larger-volume production. Plastic Logic took $150 million in funding from Rusnano and a further $100 million from it in loan notes in a total $700 million refinancing partly to built a factory in Russia for production.