“Readius is dead” (CNet), “… goes under” (Washington Post), “… closes its doors” (Geek.com), “… files for bankruptcy” (IT Pro Portal)—news sites are struggling not have to use the headline PC World did: “Flexible eBook reader company folds.”

Polymer Vision, the Dutch display company that came up with the foldable electronic reading device Readius, has, as you may have inferred by now, filed for bankruptcy. CNet quotes CEO Karl McGoldrick as saying that the product itself may survive: “We are working hard to find new investors to take over and re-start and get our technology and product into the market, where it should be.”

There is some speculation among tech sites whether the arrival of the Amazon Kindle may have led to Polymer Vision’s demise, but that seems unlikely to me. The Kindle is only sold in the USA, and there is plenty of room for e-readers in the rest of the world. A more probable assumption is that the Eindhoven-based company has serious competition from recent, large screen mobile phones. Early press photos of the Readius suggested that the device was to be used by business people on the move for reading up on stock reports and news.

(Photo: Polymer Vision.)