We reported earlier on in the month with the exclusive news that Entourage had discontinued its Entourage Pocket Edge e-reader and it seems the eliminations did not stop there. Entourage has officially announced today that its own proprietary App Store has also closed.
The company is letting all of its customers know that the store is now gone, and that you will have to get your eBooks from Google Books. They also let you know that they are not leaving you high and dry with Android applications but you can now get them via the Amazon Android store. Entourage said in a statement that the Amazon store “has access to apps that Google would never give us.”
The Entourage Pocket Edge was the followup to its much larger brother the Entourage Edge. It features dual screens which was very innovative with one screen featuring a 6 inch touch screen e-ink and a 7 inch full color resistive touch screen Android device. There were some obvious drawbacks with the device, it had an antiqutated version of Google Android 1.6, dispite promises of a firmware update. Its cost was also prohibitive at $450, but was seen on Woot.com for onlt $150.00 recently.
Although this is sad news that Entourage is suspending support and no longer making any new Pocket Edges we do have good news. Entourage’s Canadian distribution arm has let us know that the company is working on a Windows 7 Slate PC and will release it by the end of the year.
Michael Kozlowski is the Editor in Chief of Good e-Reader. He has been writing about audiobooks and e-readers for the past ten years. His articles have been picked up by major and local news sources and websites such as the CNET, Engadget, Huffington Post and Verge.