Countries that support e-readers

[arturg]

Hello all!

I would like to know which countries in the world have bookstores that actually support e-ink readers more than LCD tablets? I know US is big on e-ing readers and so is UK, but any other countries?

Here in Finland, we have three major book stores and all they are selling as ebook readers are Android tablets I wish they would at least try to promote a technique that is actually meant for what these businesses are for... reading.

[meeera]

Plenty of e-ink readers in shops here in Australia, but there aren't a lot of bricks 'n' mortar bookshops. I've mostly seen/bought e-ink readers at JB HiFi (a general electronics and media shop), Dick Smith (computer/electronics shop), and Officeworks (stationery & office supplies). They all carry tablets also, of course, either Android or Android & iOS.

There was a Collins bookshop locally that carried Kobos for a while, but the staff were pretty ignorant about the devices.

[Yapyap]

Both of our two main bookshop chains sell eInk readers (Sony, Kobo and PocketBook) both in-store and online. One also sells some low-end tablets; the other sells only eInk readers in their "e-readers" section.

One of the chains now also has its own reader - a customised PocketBook Touch Lux (156 €), which offers an Estonian UI and a direct shop-from-device option; it comes bundled with 100+ Estonian public domain classics and a couple of new books.

They also sell Kindles and include a link to Calibre on their purchase page (Estonian ebooks are sold with social DRM, i.e. watermarked, so they can be freely converted for the Kindle without removing DRM).

There was more emphasis on tablets a year or two ago, but the more ebooks are released and the more popularity they gain (it's still very, very low, but slowly improving), the more the emphasis has shifted to selling eInk readers.

[Lynx-lynx]

To add a bit more to Meeera's answer - ereaders are also sold in Big W (Woolworths variety) stores, Target, KMart.

These stores reach the great bulk of the general public - which means ereaders could be considered like a normal consumer product and not a particularly specialised consumer product.

[meeera]

Originally Posted by Lynx-lynx

To add a bit more to Meeera's answer - ereaders are also sold in Big W (Woolworths variety) stores, Target, KMart.

These stores reach the great bulk of the general public - which means ereaders could be considered like a normal consumer product and not a particularly specialised consumer product.

Oh yes, I completely forgot about them! There aren't any knowledgeable staff selling them there (in my experience), and in my experience there has been only one demo model, usually the oldest one (eg Kindle Keyboard, while the boxed ones for sale are more current), and you'd be lucky if that is charged. Mind you, the same could be said for JB Hifi.

[tardi]

I know that almost every major bookstore in Germany sells them. Mostly, they don't sell tablets at all, only e-ink readers. The same here in New Zealand although there aren't many different big bookstores.
In electronics shops they focus more on tablets in both countries.

[jersysman]

I would also suggest that Canada also has them.

[jscarbo]

From the Amazon product page for the PW2:

"We are excited to now ship Kindle to Finland. Customers in Finland will enjoy:

"Books in Under 60 Seconds: Think of a book and you could be reading it in under a minute

"Growing Selection: Over 2,450,000 English-language books to choose from; plus U.S. and international newspapers and magazines are available for your country. Because publishers give us eBook rights on a country by country basis, available titles for your country will vary from our current U.S selection. We are actively working with publishers to get the rights to all titles for every country and adding this selection every day. Check the Kindle Store to see available titles.

"Low Book Prices: New York Times® Best Sellers and New Releases are $11.99 to $13.99 (prices include VAT), unless marked otherwise. You'll also find many books for less - over 110,000 titles are priced under $5.99."

This link will take you to country-specific information for other countries: http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00CTUKFNQ

[HarryT]

eInk readers - especially the Kindle - are sold in many supermarkets in the UK, along with a range of Android tablets. They are very much mainstream consumer products now.

[arturg]

jscarbo: I am aware of Amazon offering Kindle to Finland but I would prefer to read in Finnish.

[susan_cassidy]

I think that any ebook that is readable on an e-ink reader is readable on a tablet or other device. I don't really know of many ebooks that are restricted to e-ink only.

[AlexBell]

Originally Posted by meeera

Plenty of e-ink readers in shops here in Australia, but there aren't a lot of bricks 'n' mortar bookshops. I've mostly seen/bought e-ink readers at JB HiFi (a general electronics and media shop), Dick Smith (computer/electronics shop), and Officeworks (stationery & office supplies). They all carry tablets also, of course, either Android or Android & iOS.

There was a Collins bookshop locally that carried Kobos for a while, but the staff were pretty ignorant about the devices.

I bought my Sony readers from the Myer Store in Launceston.

[crich70]

Originally Posted by meeera

Oh yes, I completely forgot about them! There aren't any knowledgeable staff selling them there (in my experience), and in my experience there has been only one demo model, usually the oldest one (eg Kindle Keyboard, while the boxed ones for sale are more current), and you'd be lucky if that is charged. Mind you, the same could be said for JB Hifi.

It happens. Back when I got my 1st computer I bought it at Radio Shack. The owner of the store where I lived then had started out in TV repair and knew very little about computers. So when I needed to get a cable to connect my dot matrix printer to the computer I had to look it up in the catalog in order to order it.

[crich70]

Originally Posted by susan_cassidy

I think that any ebook that is readable on an e-ink reader is readable on a tablet or other device. I don't really know of many ebooks that are restricted to e-ink only.

I don't know of any either. Ebooks don't have set page counts because the number varies with things like how big the screen is and the font size. I've always thought of ebooks as one size fits all as far as that. Format is another issue of course.