I am looking into selling the Hanlin V3, which is made by Jinke. Before I invest my money, I want to see how many people might want one.

The V3 is similar in size to the 505 or Cybook. Here (http://www.jinke.com.cn/Compagesql/English/embedpro/index.asp)is a link to the product page. I don't have one yet, so i cannot provide more information than what is on that page or in this forum.

I am in the US, and will ship worldwide. I would sell the V3 for the retail price of $300 plus shipping and insurance. At first, payment will be through Paypal. It's convenient, and protects us both.

There is a poll attached. If you are interested, please respond and perhaps leave a post.


EDIT: Nevermind. I have been exchanging emails, and have learned that Jinke wants 500 piece order (at $230 a piece) to be paid for and shipped in a single lot.

Forget it. Even if I had $120k lying around, I could think of better ways to invest it.

I do, in fact, want to buy a V3. The condition I have attached to that means, though, that I won't fall under the "prospective customer" label for you: I want a dealer in Europe, or more precisely within the EU, so a) I don't have to pay customs duty, b) shipping doesn't cost an arm and a leg, and c) I can benefit from European warranty laws.

I would prefer the V2, but the V3 is second on my list :book2:

Sherri

I would prefer the V2, but the V3 is second on my list :book2:

Sherri

And *I* would rather have a v9c. But... ;-)

Derek

Well if we're talking about other devices we'd like to have, I'd like to buy a V9t (http://www.jinke.com.cn/Compagesql/English/embedpro/prodetail.asp?id=36) ,for my wife's use. :whistle:

It'd be extremely useful to her. Big enough for the PDFs she needs to read, and she could probably grade her student's papers right on the thing. :drool:

Dunno if that'll influence your decision, any Nate, but there you go. :D

The earliest the V9 will be available is July. Part of the reason I am looking into selling the V3 is to establish a relationship with Jinke, and be one of the first to get the V9.

I want it too.

Well if you're a dealer for one Jinke you're in the same Junk boat with the other Jinkes or are you jinxed required to sell only one model?

I've got to say HTML is reeeeeeal tempting!

I have been exchanging emails, and have learned that Jinke wants 500 piece order (at $230 a piece) to be paid for and shipped in a single lot.

Forget it. Even if I had $120k lying around, I could think of better ways to invest it.

I have been exchanging emails, and have learned that Jinke wants 500 piece order (at $230 a piece) to be paid for and shipped in a single lot.

Forget it. Even if I had $120k lying around, I could think of better ways to invest it.This sounds familiar.

There was a German office supplies dealer in Palm oriented forums a while back, trying to drum up interest. HandEra was still in business as a device maker, with the TRG-Pro and HandEra 330. He wanted a color 330, because he felt he could sell a lot of them, and HandEra had reportedly made a prototype. HandEra wanted a firm order for 10,000 before they would make them. They were a small company who survived competing against Palm and Sony in the PDA market through rigorous cost controls, and weren't about to do a production run "on spec". If it didn't sell, it would sink them.

(HandEra is still around, but no longer manufactures devices. They are now engineering consultants for embedded hardware.)

And the NAEB folks had to come up with a minimum number of guaranteed orders (I don't reall how many) before they could do a deal with Bookeen for a customized Cybook.

Your experience with Jinke is not a surprise.
______
Dennis

Not really a comparison is it? Hanlin already makes and sells the V3 opposed to your example of a company having a prototype and making a decision based on a guaranteed order.
But to be honest.. I don't know what all the fuss is about on trying to get a V3 in Europe.. I ordered and got mine directly from the Jinke site within a week for 300 dollar and I do live in Europe.. With the low dollar price I would say just go for it. The only pain is that you have to wire the money using international transfer and they don't accept credit cards or paypal.. Other then that it was an easy transaction.

This sounds familiar.

There was a German office supplies dealer in Palm oriented forums a while back, trying to drum up interest. HandEra was still in business as a device maker, with the TRG-Pro and HandEra 330. He wanted a color 330, because he felt he could sell a lot of them, and HandEra had reportedly made a prototype. HandEra wanted a firm order for 10,000 before they would make them. They were a small company who survived competing against Palm and Sony in the PDA market through rigorous cost controls, and weren't about to do a production run "on spec". If it didn't sell, it would sink them.

(HandEra is still around, but no longer manufactures devices. They are now engineering consultants for embedded hardware.)

And the NAEB folks had to come up with a minimum number of guaranteed orders (I don't reall how many) before they could do a deal with Bookeen for a customized Cybook.

Your experience with Jinke is not a surprise.
______
Dennis

But to be honest.. I don't know what all the fuss is about on trying to get a V3 in Europe.. I ordered and got mine directly from the Jinke site within a week for 300 dollar and I do live in Europe.. With the low dollar price I would say just go for it. The only pain is that you have to wire the money using international transfer and they don't accept credit cards or paypal..

Although bank transfers are commonplace to those of us in Europe, they are, I am led to believe, not so common in the US (where everyone has a credit card), hence Americans are often a little "wary" of them.

But to be honest.. I don't know what all the fuss is about on trying to get a V3 in Europe.. I ordered and got mine directly from the Jinke site within a week for 300 dollar and I do live in Europe..

I've given some of my reasons above. To repeat: customs duty and tax, and the hassle of dealing with same, shipping charges, and warranty. Even with the dollar being as low as it is, the customs duty, taxes and shipping charges add up to the point where the offer from Apollo XXI is competitive on price alone. Add in the hefty charges for international wire transfers, warranty, and the hassle that dealing with the customs office can be (speaking from experience here), and ordering directly from Jinke suddenly looks far less lucrative to me than ordering from a dealer within the EU.

I've given some of my reasons above. To repeat: customs duty and tax, and the hassle of dealing with same, shipping charges, and warranty. Even with the dollar being as low as it is, the customs duty, taxes and shipping charges add up to the point where the offer from Apollo XXI is competitive on price alone. Add in the hefty charges for international wire transfers, warranty, and the hassle that dealing with the customs office can be (speaking from experience here), and ordering directly from Jinke suddenly looks far less lucrative to me than ordering from a dealer within the EU.

Just catched up on the Apollo post.. Sounds like a very good option indeed. Was just passing on my experience. But with a European dealer, it gets a lot easier for more people I guess.

I have been exchanging emails, and have learned that Jinke wants 500 piece order (at $230 a piece) to be paid for and shipped in a single lot.

Forget it. Even if I had $120k lying around, I could think of better ways to invest it.

I thought they didn't have a minimum order quantity, unless you were asking for customisations?

I have been exchanging emails, and have learned that Jinke wants 500 piece order (at $230 a piece) to be paid for and shipped in a single lot.

Forget it. Even if I had $120k lying around, I could think of better ways to invest it.That sounds natural, obviously they have to protect themselves. The only way to do it would be, as previously mentionned, the Naeb way.

As a warning though, there aren't enough people interested here to form a purchase group. It has been tried in 06, when there were only two eink choices available, to form such a group (http://www.mobileread.com/forums/showthread.php?t=8996) for the acquisition of the then all new Bookeen reader.

If trying it tempts you, I would be willing to go for the V9!:thumbsup:

I don't honestly think you'd be able to sell 500 V3s in the USA considering the 505 & Kindle are the biggest competitors and the Wol format is not a strong selling point.

I don't honestly think you'd be able to sell 500 V3s in the USA considering the 505 & Kindle are the biggest competitors and the Wol format is not a strong selling point.

to me it would be a stronger choice with something like FBReader on board. It does read other formats now but not much that is commercially available. Reading eReader files would be wonderful.

Dale

I don't honestly think you'd be able to sell 500 V3s in the USA considering the 505 & Kindle are the biggest competitors and the Wol format is not a strong selling point.
Say Jon! What is Wol ?

Say Jon! What is Wol ?

Look in the wiki. Wolf is the format used by Hanlin and not available on any other unit. WOL is short for Wolf and is usually the extension. The format can be text or images but most of the tools supplied by Hanlin produce large images. This is what happens if you use the print to Wolf option.

Dale

Thanks Dale.

You are right Harry, bank (wire) transfers are not common in the US except between companies and with the Government. Private citizens still think it is magic when their paychecks are "direct deposited" to their accounts.

While the Jinke is an interesting piece of gear, if I was to get another e-ink device at the moment it would be the CyBook because of the multiple format support. The Jinke seems to have a more limited format support than the Sony. Maybe the larger screen will change their marketplace acceptance; but, I doubt that they will be the only player in the larger screen size market.

iScriptum (http://www.iscriptum.com/) is selling lBook V3 (which is OEM version of Jinke) inside EU and they said they'll have English interface for the shop "ASAP".

Private citizens still think it is magic when their paychecks are "direct deposited" to their accounts.:stunned: There goes my world view crashing to the ground in tiny shards. Again. :p

iScriptum (http://www.iscriptum.com/) is selling lBook V3 (which is OEM version of Jinke) inside EU and they said they'll have English interface for the shop "ASAP".

The lBook seems to be the leading edge development for what is going on at Jinke. iScriptum sells that edition I believe. The Hanlin does have a fairly impressive list of formats it supports natively. PDF, TXT, RTF, WOLF, DOC, CHM, FB2, HTML, DJVU, MP3, TIFF, JPG, GIF, BMP, PNG, RAR, ZIP

But, none of these have English commercial eBooks. It should do great as a CBR/CBZ reader I would think but they currently don't accept these as file types. All of the underpinnings are in place.

Dale

CBR and CBZ are just RAR and ZIP with a bunch of GIF or JPG images inside. So I don't see why that would be a problem as long as you renamed the file extensions.

CBR and CBZ are just RAR and ZIP with a bunch of GIF or JPG images inside. So I don't see why that would be a problem as long as you renamed the file extensions.

Yes, that was the point I was making. I am not sure how easy the transition between images is using the UI but it is probably ok.

Dale

But, none of these have English commercial eBooks.
There was some talk about adding DRMed Mobi support to lBook/Jinke, but I'm not sure what's the progress on that.

The Hanlin does have a fairly impressive list of formats it supports natively. PDF, TXT, RTF, WOLF, DOC, CHM, FB2, HTML, DJVU, MP3, TIFF, JPG, GIF, BMP, PNG, RAR, ZIP

But, none of these have English commercial eBooks. If the FB2 support is good enough, then this would be my choice for DRM-free e-books. This is relatively well supported (e.g. conversion tools etcetera), because of its popularity in Russia. However, I agree that an e-book reader must have DRM support to be viable.

At Ebookreaders.nl (http://www.ebookreaders.nl) (site is available both in Dutch and English) we have been looking at the possibilities of importing the V3 for the European market. Same story here, the minimum order qty of 500 pcs is just too much. Maybe after they've added Mobipocket support we'll think it over again. Until then, we sell the Cybook and the iLiad.

We did an extensive review of the V3, though. I think it's a great device and the build quality is ok. It looks very much like the Cybook though, comparing them side-by-side.

Wiebe

When they have one that does what the V3 does, plus a touch screen, I'll buy one.

When they have that plus WiFi, I'll ask the university to mandate these for every student in my classes.

Andy

I don't honestly think you'd be able to sell 500 V3s in the USA considering the 505 & Kindle are the biggest competitors and the Wol format is not a strong selling point.

Wolf format is beyond irrelevant. The fact is that I'm ditching by PRS-505 for a Jinke when they get a touch screen due to the CHM support, the DOC support, the PPT support, the DJVU support, the HTML support, etc.

The reasons I bought a PRS-505 is that (1) I could return it if it didn't seem usable after a week, (2) I could play with it at Fry's, (3) It had a warranty, (4) They took a payment method other than bank transfer, (5) S/H rates, and (6) I sent my CC info to Jinke and begged them to charge me for 6 months before the morons decided to clarify that they only took bank transfers.

Still, Jinke's product is an open s/w platform, is plainly going to out pace the proprietary platforms, and is not Sony, so I'm still watching them. If they ever learn to (1) take orders, (2) ship reasonably, (3) provide a plausible US-based warranty, and (4) deliver a device that reads all my data formats (like the V3 does) while allowing me to take notes on the touch screen, then I'll jump.

Andy

At Apollo XXI (http://www.apolloxxi.com), we sell the V3 both direct to the consumers and also as a distributor in case anybody would like to buy in order to resell.
We have no problem accepting smaller order quantities than 500. Actually, to offer you distributor price we do not need more than 20.

If you are interested send me an email info@apoloxxi.com

Separate topic: I don't think the V3 is good for CBR or reading comics. I will post some pictures in this post http://www.mobileread.com/forums/showthread.php?t=18837

Thanks. I sent an email.

When they have one that does what the V3 does, plus a touch screen, I'll buy one.

When they have that plus WiFi, I'll ask the university to mandate these for every student in my classes.

Andy

Jinke makes a V3 with a touch screen I believe. Try this link

http://www.jinke.com.cn/Compagesql/English/embedpro/prodetail.asp?id=37

Dale

What would the warranty be for the V3 if purchased for use in the USA?

It would be a typical international warranty of 12 months.
Basically, it will work like iRex or Bookeen in which the items are shipped back to a repair center outside the US.