GVIDO is a Japanese company that has developed one product, the GVIDO Sheet Music Reader. This was a dual screen 13.3 inch tablet that had an innovate hinge, that allowed it to open and close. Many professional level musicians love this device, because there is an infrared sensor above the page turn buttons, that will turn the page with a wave of your hand. It also had Bluetooth functionality and is compatible with all sorts of foot pedals. GVIDO has just announced that they will be discontinuing it in March, 2022.
The email Good e-Reader attained, stated the following. “Due to various reasons, we will discontinue sales of GVIDO as of the end of March 2022. Our future plans are as follows. We would like to express our deepest gratitude to all of our employees for their patronage and ask for your understanding. Thank you for your understanding. Details 1. GVIDO sales period GVIDO will be available for purchase as usual until the end of March 2022. One year manufacturer’s warranty will be included as before. 2. GVIDO support GVIDO support will be provided until the end of March 2024. Please contact GVIDO Customer Support if you have any problems. https://jp.gvidoscore.com/support 3.”
The GVIDEO cloud service, cloud library and their PDF music store will close in early 2024. What does this mean? Any purchases you made from the store, will be gone, this is because you have licensed the content, you don’t actually own it. The only way users will get any value, is if PDF files are sideloaded, which is fine if you find royalty free sheet music online, but most of the good stuff is paid.
I believe one of the big reasons why the company is going to be shutting down is due to the price. This is one of the only E INK products that truly have a large, dual screen and comes with a stylus, to make annotations to sheet music. It was designed and manufactured in Japan, which adds to the overall cost. The company sells the device for around $1500 and resellers charge even more. Likely, sales have been declining for a number of years and they have waited until most of their current inventory to be depleted, before making an announcement.
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.
