Australian eBook news

[AdrianC]

This comes from Business News from The Australian news website.

Redgroup Retail to launch e-books: Angus & Robertson and Borders


REDGROUP Retail, owner of the Angus & Robertson and Borders bookstore chains, will begin selling electronic book readers and e-books within months in partnership with Canadian bookseller Indigo.

Redgroup chief David Fenlon said the company aimed to launch the Kobo e-book service late next month via its Borders online retailing division, once a sufficient library of titles was available.

Kobo, founded by Canadian bookseller Indigo, is negotiating with international publishers for the rights to sell electronic versions of its catalogues, while Redgroup is in discussions with Australian publishers.

Prices for e-books would be priced "competitively", but Mr Fenlon declined to say how the price would compare with paper editions.

"Ultimately the consumer will decide -- e-books being cheaper is the state overseas but whether that's the case in Australia is yet to be seen," he said.

While the Kobo service will be compatible with existing mobile devices such as Blackberrys, iPhones or laptops, Redgroup will also sell simple electronic readers starting at about $200.

The move into e-books follows the company's abortive 2008 attempt to introduce an in-store print-on-demand service, which ultimately foundered for lack of available titles as publishers declined to open up their back catalogues.

Mr Fenlon said the company had moved the single print-on-demand kiosk it had installed in a central Melbourne branch of Angus & Robertson to a warehouse, where it was being used to fulfil online orders for out-of-print titles and self-published manuscripts. Initial plans were for 50 units.

Mr Fenlon said the company's private equity owners, Pacific Equity Partners, were still considering when they might sell the asset into the stockmarket via an initial public offering. "We haven't made any decisions."

[PDS]

Sounds interesting, would be good to have some other ebook buying options as long as they dont price themselves out of the market.

I will still buy from overseas if they set prices too high, because the geographical restriction thing can be worked around and is not generally a problem.

I cant wait to see what they come up with, cheers for the info.

Dawn

[Solicitous]

I agree with PDS, as long as they don't price themselves out of the market it will be a good thing.

I'm certainly interested to know what reader they would sell for $200.

[Blue Tyson]

Ultimately the consumer will decide being code for :

This is Australia, so we'll charge a lot more, unless no-one buys at all.

[Solicitous]

Originally Posted by Blue Tyson

Ultimately the consumer will decide being code for :

This is Australia, so we'll charge a lot more, unless no-one buys at all.

Ha ha more like "This is Australia so we'll charge a lot more. Ooops no one is buying ebooks in Australia, looks like there isn't a market for it down here".

[PKFFW]

Originally Posted by Blue Tyson

Ultimately the consumer will decide being code for :

This is Australia, so we'll charge a lot more, unless no-one buys at all.

Yes exactly!

I am interested in the $200 reader but I have a feeling it will just be some old LCD screen pos anyway.

Cheers,
PKFFW

[AlexBell]

I'm much more interested in the Kobo range of ebooks. It will be interesting to compare the prices of Kobo books in Canada and in Australia, and see how they compare after accounting for the exchange rate.

Regards, Alex

[IndecisiveMe]

Originally Posted by AdrianC

REDGROUP Retail, owner of the Angus & Robertson and Borders bookstore chains, will begin selling electronic book readers and e-books within months in partnership with Canadian bookseller Indigo.

Borders has been selling ebook readers online for some time now, I doubt they've sold many given their current prices - $625.95 for a Bebook Mini (seriously!), $647.95 for a Sony PRS-300 and $898.95 for the Sony PRS-600.

These prices are well above anywhere you can get these devices in Australia. Our prices are already over-inflated and Borders makes it even worse.

I can't wait to see what they come up with. If their books are reasonably priced I'll be happy to buy from them. However, they missed the chance to sell me a reader as my Pocketbook 360 arrived this afternoon for half the price (including shipping) of anything else offered by them currently.

I'm with everyone else - Australian retailers regularly price themselves out of the market and we find cheaper ways to get what we want.

[AprilHare]

Australia (and Australians) are used to being treated badly by publishers, hence why the POD service was a bust.
Dunno if I'll be able to use their service with my current liseuse (they're dreaming if they think I'm buying another).

Originally Posted by IndecisiveMe

Borders has been selling ebook readers online for some time now, I doubt they've sold many given their current prices - $625.95 for a Bebook Mini (seriously!), $647.95 for a Sony PRS-300 and $898.95 for the Sony PRS-600.

These prices are well above anywhere you can get these devices in Australia. Our prices are already over-inflated and Borders makes it even worse.

I can't wait to see what they come up with. If their books are reasonably priced I'll be happy to buy from them. However, they missed the chance to sell me a reader as my Pocketbook 360 arrived this afternoon for half the price (including shipping) of anything else offered by them currently.

I'm with everyone else - Australian retailers regularly price themselves out of the market and we find cheaper ways to get what we want.

Those prices you quoted are just plain highway robbery.

Originally Posted by Blue Tyson

Ultimately the consumer will decide being code for :

This is Australia, so we'll charge a lot more, unless no-one buys at all.

Usually one leads to the other. But hey, this is Australia: we left all the shopkeepers back in England

[sabredog]

This will certainly be a wait and see for me.

I doubt the ereaders will be cheap, even with Hardly Normal touting themselves the ebook place to be with their iriver ereader.

Hopefully the ebook market will get better and just finally we might see a relaxation of GR. That would be worth it!

I won't hold my breath though

[cbarnett]

Like the rest of you, I'll adopt a "wait and see" attitude as well. I'm not interested in getting a new reader anyway, but I expect the books to be over-priced and the catalog to be sadly lacking, compared to offerings overseas.

I hope I'm disappointed.

[Blue Tyson]

Originally Posted by IndecisiveMe

Borders has been selling ebook readers online for some time now, I doubt they've sold many given their current prices - $625.95 for a Bebook Mini (seriously!), $647.95 for a Sony PRS-300 and $898.95 for the Sony PRS-600.

These prices are well above anywhere you can get these devices in Australia. Our prices are already over-inflated and Borders makes it even worse.

I can't wait to see what they come up with. If their books are reasonably priced I'll be happy to buy from them. However, they missed the chance to sell me a reader as my Pocketbook 360 arrived this afternoon for half the price (including shipping) of anything else offered by them currently.

I'm with everyone else - Australian retailers regularly price themselves out of the market and we find cheaper ways to get what we want.

Borders in Australia I am sure is the most expensive bookshop on the planet.

[smerrall]

Originally Posted by Blue Tyson

Borders in Australia I am sure is the most expensive bookshop on the planet.

That's a bit harsh. I used Matthew Reilly's latest "Five Greatest Warriors" as an example, since he is, after all Australian.
Borders was a quite reasonable $29.99. For the most expensive try Dymocks at $49.99!

[IndecisiveMe]

Originally Posted by Blue Tyson

Borders in Australia I am sure is the most expensive bookshop on the planet.

I'm not sure about that, I've bought some reasonably priced books from them, mostly non-fiction photography books that were around the same price as other shops I'd seen.

As for their readers, yes, quite possibly the most expensive place to buy them on the planet.

While I was searching for my first reader it popped into my head that maybe my local Borders/Angus & Robertson/Collins/Dymocks (you get the picture) might have a couple in stock so I could see what they looked like. I'd never seen an ereader before. Most places I called had no idea what I was talking about, so I looked at their websites instead. Imagine my surprise when I saw Borders prices for the readers I've mentioned above.

Fast forward a couple of weeks and here I am with a brand new Pocketbook 360 direct from the US. I'm sick of paying through the nose for the same products I can get MUCH cheaper overseas, including shipping.

I hope that this deal does go through, and I hope that they keep their prices competitive and in line with those of other countries. I also hope that geographic restrictions let up, but that could be a pipe dream.

[Blue Tyson]

Originally Posted by smerrall

That's a bit harsh. I used Matthew Reilly's latest "Five Greatest Warriors" as an example, since he is, after all Australian.
Borders was a quite reasonable $29.99. For the most expensive try Dymocks at $49.99!

All their graphic novels, all their SF etc.

Would never buy a Matthew Reilly hardback, so wouldn't notice, I suppose.