With Flipkart now venturing into the hot ebook segment, avid readers in India now have a whole new destination to source their ebooks from. Flipkart is India’s leading e-commerce platform and has built a considerable reputation in the fast maturing online shopping scene in the country. The online retailer is selling ebook svia its digital store Flyte, which as of now has about 100,000 titles to offer. Prices start at just Rs. 30, while about 4,000 titles are offered free. However, the service is currently available only for the Android platform, though the retailer has stated it will have an appropriate app for Windows 8 readied soon.
“This is the perfect time to launch ebooks in India. We have a growing, tech-savvy reader base that is constantly on the go—and they are looking for options to buy and read their favorite books on their mobile devices instantly. In the US and European markets, which have been early adopters of ebooks, the market share for digital trade books is currently at 50%. In the US, the ebooks market recently crossed $1 billion in annual sales,” said Sameer Nigam, VP, Digital at Flipkart.com.
eBooks downloaded via the Flyte app can be stored on a maximum of six devices in Flipkart’s proprietary .fkb format. The app has an auto syncing function, which means readers can carry on with their reading on another device without having to manually bookmark their reading on each device.
“It’s a natural step in the right direction for Flipkart, which is known for its extensive collection of books ranging from bestsellers to the rarest of titles,” said noted British author Jeffrey Archer.
Equally excited is Indian author Chetan Bhagat, who stated: “Flipkart is at the cutting edge of innovation and it has been as much a reason for the growth in Indian publishing as the publishers and the authors. It changed how books were sold in India with an amazing online platform, and now its new ebooks initiative with Flyte will take book distribution to a new level. I am very excited about my books being accessible in new modern formats and hoping this makes India read even more.”
With a keen interest in tech, I make it a point to keep myself updated on the latest developments in technology and gadgets. That includes smartphones or tablet devices but stretches to even AI and self-driven automobiles, the latter being my latest fad. Besides writing, I like watching videos, reading, listening to music, or experimenting with different recipes. The motion picture is another aspect that interests me a lot, and I'll likely make a film sometime in the future.
