The latest E-Reader news has True Digital Entertainment and Media, the company behind True Music and tech giant BENQ partnering up to create the Amazon of Thailand! The new service will be named “The True Digital Bookstore Service.”
We reported on the new E-Reader from Thailand giant BENQ earlier this month, and it looks like they are launching one huge new service. BENQ is one the largest technology magnet in Thailand, making many different gadgets.
When you buy a new BENQ K60 Electronic Reader you will receive virtual credits to put forth and download up to 100 new books off of www.truebookstore.com. Users will be able to download e-books from the homepage via either a Wi-Fi network or directly linking the e-reader to a personal computer with Internet access.
The True Bookstore will function via a subscription based model, if people do not want to sign up for the subscription model they can pay a modest monthly fee to access 37 e-books.
BENQ is also releasing the nReader E-Reader, which will have the industry standard six-inch display, although it will be a touch-screen electronic ink display. Even with its high costs, electronic ink is preferred by e-reader manufacturers due to its extremely low power consumption and good contrast. Not only is the contrast better, but it is easier on the eyes when you are reading in the long term. LCD displays leave your eyes strained after long uses of staring at an LCD monitor, E-INK is proving to be very popular for the last few years because of the amazing resolution and less eye strain after prolonged usage.
The nReader will also have 2GB of internal storage for eBooks and support formats such as ePub, HTML and PDF. BenQ is expecting to sell 300,000 units the next year and over 100 million e-readers in ten years. They are mainly focusing on the Asian market to stimulate long term growth.
The Truebooks website currently offers around 1,000 books from 50 different publishers, including Nanmee Books, Viboonkij, Klead Thai, Leelabook, Praphansarn Publishing, Provision, IDC Premier, Saengdao, Booksmile, DMG Book, Sathaporn Book, Future Gamer, TIB Thai Inter Book, Busy-day Publishing, Bear Publishing, Marketeer magazine and Post Publishing, which publishes the Bangkok Post and a book line.
Paranee Techawatanasomboon, assistant general manager, has expressed the hope that this new technology will encourage greater numbers of people to read more regularly, accelerating knowledge in society and also helping to save environment by reducing the amount of paper used.
The e-reader market in Thailand is fledgling and in its infancy of development. It is expected to record huge growth of 300 per cent over the next few years, much like the e-reader markets in United States and China. Over the next one or two years, many Thailand industry leaders expects that competition between e-readers will drive down the price down.
At the global level in the same time frame, it is estimated that the e-reader market will hit 9.3 million units, up from 3.8 million last year, or a growth of almost three times.
If you live in Thailand and want to work in this new sector which will see expediential growth, the company currently has a number of job opportunity postings on the Thaiitjobs website.
If you liked this article subscribe to our Good E-Reader Magazine! We are publishing our MAY issue in the next few days. We feature articles on the future of publishing in the ebook world, an interview with the CEO of Fusion Garage, the makers of the JooJoo and more!
Michael Kozlowski is the editor-in-chief at Good e-Reader and has written about audiobooks and e-readers for the past fifteen years. Newspapers and websites such as the CBC, CNET, Engadget, Huffington Post and the New York Times have picked up his articles. He Lives in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada.
