You could always buy a Kindle reader and Kindle books from India. But now, several titles are available at Indian prices i. A big barrier has been broken. I would first look to market e-books in India, with the carrot that it is at Indian prices. Since Amazon already has reading applications for various platforms, let people read Chetan Bhagat for even cheaper than they are used to. The hope is that once they see the convenience and benefits of e-books, the device will also come into their list of things to have similar to a mobile phone or a computer.
It is something like Gmail. What initially attracted people to it was 1 GB space. Once they started using it, they became a sucker for the ability to search and labels and neat conversations and so on. So, let people first buy books even cheaper than current print versions.
Then let them get used to the convenience and social reading and sharing and ability to carrying thousands of books and so on. Let them invest in a Kindle reader after that. Amazon just needs to make their reading apps better on all platforms and make money on the actual e-book sales. But if marketing the device is indeed a priority, marketing on convenience, selection of titles or even savings over long term with cheap e-books is unlikely to make the cut.
They have to find a way to appeal to the value consciousness of Indian consumers. And there is one place where they are eager to see value. How to make their kids do well. So, my dream advertisement by Amazon for Kindle in India will say something like following:. Before finishing, let me touch on the content that Indians do read.
Attempts are being made in separate quarters to tap into this market with electronic content. There the emphasis is not only on digitizing the text content, but more on making the learning easy and fun with interactive content, videos, apps and so on.
Those efforts can be considered a part of the broad e-learning segment. Examples of startups working in such areas are Mangoreader, Attano,iProf and many others.
The road to adoption is not very easy even there. But the selling pitch is a bit clearer with enhancing the learning, rather than just a replacement for physical book. Also higher-education institutions have subscribed to journals in electronic format for decades now. So, at least some target group of customer is not opposed to the idea of e-content by itself. The challenges will remain in going beyond that small group, and also being able to bring the relevant and quality content to the table.
It is easy to say that interactive content enhances learning. Creating quality, interactive content consumes much more resources than converting a text-only novel to epub. So, the jury is out on that front too. Things are not going to change overnight. But I am optimistic about the future of e-books. Given our population, a difference made to even a small percentage of population can mean significant business. The industry players have to keep working hard to find the right value proposition for Indian market.
Selling e-books in India is indeed an uphill task. And that point of yours that talks of the preference of a physical copy over an electronic one is absolutely valid. The advantage it has got is due to the availability of apps for download available at iTunes store which has more than 3 lacs apps to be downloaded and use them. Apple iPad latest launch in March features a Dual Core A5 processor for blazing fast speed and better performance. There is improved battery backup of up to 10 hours during normal playback time.
The screen size is 9. As an Apple product surely it runs on Apple iOS 4 operating system. Apple iPad 2 is priced ranges from Rs to Rs and it will take you to the next level of computing. Infibeam a leading eBook store has launched its own eBook reader making it sequel to Amazon Kindle in India. Available online for purchase at www. It has a library of over 1 lacs of eBooks and its growing from time to time.
They have the collection of all the best sellers and new releases from the digital world collection. It also supports the Indian languages like Hindi, Sanskrit and few other languages. Amazing features and other add-ons can be seen in the latest release of IndiBeam Pi 2. Pi comes with a storage of eBooks altogether with its internal storage and for more you can add a SD card. Generally a 4 GB addition SD card can increase the memory of eBook storage to books so that you never miss any of your favorite collection with any compromise.
Provided with a good battery backup Infibeam Pi is truly an Indian brand. Infibeam Pi comes at a price of Rs 9, and Pi 2 comes with a price of Rs To get e-book for download you need to visit the WinkStore app on your Wink device and browse the entire online gallery. The Wink is known for its better battery backup of up to 10 hours during playback on single charge. Moreover WinkStore has reported for selling the best sellers eBooks at very cheap price than its normal price.
Google has also launched its eBook Store and named it as Google Editions. Thanks for the post. Want to add another one to the list. The New Nook which features touch screen with e-ink pearl technology just like Amazon Kindle 3. It has SD card extension and 2 months of battery life compared to 1month in Kindle. It could be an bunch of information at one place. Even lower-cost tablets like the Amazon Fire 7 can browse the web, stream video from Netflix, Hulu, or other sources, play music, and run apps.
Because of its high-quality screen and general power, though, we recommend the base-model iPad for most people trying to read rich, full-page color content. Unfortunately, we can't recommend them yet; the screen technology is relatively dim, with low full-color resolution and occasional ghosting.
LCD tablets are far superior. If you like to read in the bath, by the pool, or on the beach, you might want to consider buying a waterproof ebook reader. You have several options. The Kindle Oasis and the Kobos have page turn buttons so you can easily flip between pages when your hands are too wet to use a touch screen.
All ebook readers let you highlight or tag particular phrases for later reference. Some have digital pens that let you take notes directly on the screen. In general, they let you annotate on PDFs and sometimes other kinds of documents, and they let you take freehand notes on a blank page. The Onyx Boox Note Air 2 is our favorite E Ink tablet for pen use because of its paper-like feel and strong document format support.
It's also worth mentioning the Remarkable 2 tablet here. The Remarkable 2 is a dedicated digital note-taking tablet with a passionate following. Sometimes you'd rather listen than read. Sometimes you'd like to read and listen at the same time.
Kindles now have the ability to connect to Bluetooth headphones to play Audible audiobooks. Many Amazon books will synchronize with Audible audiobooks on Kindle ebook readers.
Kobos have their own audiobook format. Onyx ebook readers have built-in speakers and the ability to use multiple audiobook apps. Oddly, Amazon saves its slickest audiobook feature, Immersion Reading, for its Android app, which means you need an Onyx ebook reader to use it. That feature synchronizes words displayed on the page while also narrating through audio. An always-on cellular radio lets you buy and download books from anywhere, over the air, for free aside from the cost of the book itself, of course.
Most devices offer Wi-Fi as the base level wireless connection—at a much lower cost—with 4G cellular data only available as part of a more-expensive model. As long as you don't mind waiting until you're near a hotspot to shop for new books, Wi-Fi should work for you. A select few may still prefer to pony up for cellular to buy a new book while, say, on a long camping trip or lounging at the beach.
Internal storage capacity is not much of a concern. Every ebook reader you can buy today can store more than 1, books, and some have room for thousands more. And if you have more books than that, each of the major vendors offers cloud storage, letting you download books to your device whenever you need them, assuming you're connected to Wi-Fi hotspot or anywhere you have a cell signal, if you have a 4G-capable model.
When you choose an ebook reader, you're making a decision up front as to which ecosystem you'll support. It's possible to remove the copy protection, but you may also remove features such as formatting and character summaries.
It's also gotten much harder to strip the protection specifically from Amazon books in the past year or two. Onyx ebook readers can run all of their competitors' Android apps, so they can read everyone's content. For public library lending, Kobo ebook readers let you install the popular library app Overdrive as their native store, which is very convenient. Amazon sends you through the library's web site to pick books that get pushed to your device; Onyx has you load a specific library app.
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