There’s no final price yet, but Astak’s eBook reader with five-inch display might be the reader for folks on a budget. Rumors are that the device will arrive in the U.S. next month and could cost as low at $150, which if true, gets this type of device more in line with the consumer electronics market. That’s not suggesting that a $399 Kindle won’t sell; obviously it can and does. But most folks I speak with that show an interest in the Kindle really balk at the price.

Supported formats: TXT, PDF, RTF, HTML/CHM. May an FBReader ports appear for the Astaks, so people can at least enjoy nonDRMed Mobipocket, as well as ePub, the standard of the future! And who knows? I wonder if old editions of Mobipocket’s own software might run on the six-inch and ten-inch Astaks (WIN CE5.0), even now. Unlikely but you never know. The five-incher runs Linux (QT environment). Any FBReader possibilities for that one even now?

Given all this competition, combined with the dearth of titles available to load on them, it might be worth sticking with pulp for awhile to see if prices go even lower. [via astak]