Spring Design will bring out its Android-powered Alex e-reader two weeks after the launch of Apple’s iPad. Though, it would have managed to derive more value in the market, had it been brought out before iPad.

Android-powered Alex e-reader will cost around $399 and have both a 6-inch e-ink display and a 3.5-inch, 16-bit color touch-screen LCD. It will dispatch somewhere in the middle of the next month, though the e-reader will arrive on April 3.

Alex is 4.7 inches wide, 8.9 inches high and its thickness is less than a half inch. Google books are downloadable and it is compatible with other bookstores that support Adobe DRM. Some of its characters are akin to Barnes & Noble's dual-screen Nook.

It has built-in Wi-Fi and is capable of streaming videos, surfing the web and using some of the Android applications too. Its e-ink display offers the fastest refresh rates on the market.

As far as its price is concerned, it falls somewhere between the iPad and e-readers like the $259 Nook and Kindle. Its market will be based upon its fulfillment of the promises that it had made. May be iPad is more tempting an offer, costing a few dollars more.