The manufacturer behind the folding ebook reader – the Readius, have gone into liquidation after a difficult period trying to sustain funding. The Readius, part of the emerging flock of new breed ebook readers did have many very excited do to it’s fold over screen capability that would have seen it perfectly positioned to capture the convenient ‘on the move’ part of the market.

The innovative ereader also had mobile phone capabilities with effortless email, calendar, and contacts functionality as well. To date, eink devices have tended to be ereaders, with some eink watches and laptops being previewed, but the Readius was the first to demonstrate the multi-purpose potential or eink technology through a wide variety of communications and publishing applications.

Initially thought to be launching back in 2007, the Readius has faced numerous problems and long delays which have now built up to see the company close up shop. Based in Southampton, the closure of POlymer Vision sees 50 jobs lost. No news has been reported on the future of the technology behind the Readius but hopefully we’ll see it rising from the flames in the form of another ebook reader and/or eink device in the near future.