Only a handful of e-reader brands focus exclusively on the North American market or worldwide. Amazon, Rakuten Kobo, Pocketbook, Meebook and Remarkable tend to sell their devices pretty well in every major country. Other companies focus on only one market, such as Tolino in Germany, Kyobo in South Korea, Barnes and Noble Nook in the United States, and HyRead and Mooink in Taiwan. The rest of the e-readers focus on the Chinese market, such as Huawei, Hanvon, iFlytek, iReader, Onyx Boox and Bigme. Boox and Bigme have a series of distributors who sell their e-readers and e-notebooks worldwide, operate their stores and sell on Amazon. Would you buy a Chinese brand e-reader?
The domestic Chinese market is one of the most populous and can be an exclusive focus for e-reader and e-notebook companies. iFlytek, iReader, Hanvon, Huawei, Boox and Bigme started selling their devices domestically. There is such a vast pool of potential users that you can do quite well by targeting it exclusively. Some of these brands also have English on their devices, in case someone buys it overseas and can use it. However, they all have Chinese bookstores loaded on the device, so users in the USA or Canada won’t find much value in them.
Bigme and Onyx are a bit of an outlier. They focus on the Chinese market and have several e-readers and e-notebooks reserved for China only. They also have a line of this hardware earmarked for international sales. Both of these brands have Google Play, Android and a standard UI. However, intrepid hackers who have looked at the source code have all seen lots of queries being sent to China.
Chinese e-readers and e-notes are the most populous. Onyx Boox sells over 14 different devices internally. Bigme currently sells close to 30 current and previous generations. They sell entry-level stuff for as little as $200 and upwards to thousands. These brands specifically do not monetize their devices with software; they make all their money selling hardware, which is why every year they refresh their entire catalogue.
So, as a rule of thumb, almost all Chinese e-readers and e-notes have Android, and most have Google Play and good enough specs to handle several apps open at once. However, Amazon, Kobo, Pocketbook, and Remarkable are all more stable and run Linux, have way better battery life and are generally more polished. There is a reason why Amazon and Kobo are the global number one and two players: they have the most sales and the most money. Amazon and Kobo have world-class bookstores in English or other countries where you can buy them.
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.
