The BeBook e-reader sells 30.000th unit and supports Mobipocket DRM

[BeBook]

From the launch of our eReader (electronic Book reader) last May, we're overwhelmed with great responses on our BeBook. We got a lot of media attention (even made national television in several countries).

Apart from being extremely “green”, e-reading has been praised as the future of reading. Because of it's crisp paperlike screen even book fanatics forget they're reading from a device instead of a 'good old fashioned' paper printed edition.

Some newspapers go as far as stating “it's the next big thing after the iPod, the BeBook is like an iPod for books.”

Value for money
Because the BeBook is open source and offers the widest variety of file formats (some even exclusively) supported by any reader, a lot of customers new to the eReaders chose our product, because of it's value for money: most formats, a complimentary leather case and thousands of books included.

The Internationale Funk Austellung (IFA) in Berlin.
Earlier this month we attended the IFA in Berlin, Europe's largest Consumer Electronics fair. We expected some nice attention, but we were literally flooded with journalists, resellers, distributors and of course consumers who wanted to see our product with their own eyes.

Many distributors were immediately convinced of the BeBook's potential, in the upcoming months the BeBook will be available from stores in many countries across Europe, we'll add and update a list of stores on our website shortly.

Time for a little celebration : 30.000 BeBooks sold.
Little over a week after the IFA we sold the 30.000th BeBook. Even our own forecasts never predicted this. Just when we were about to release a new much anticipated software update, we hit the 30.000 mark : B.E. Jones from Canberra (Australia) placed the order. Of course we added some complimentary accessories to his order.

New Update : MobiPocket support.
All new BeBooks shipped from today will have the Mobipocket update installed. This means BeBook owners now have access to virtually any new book released. The MobiPocket DRM (digital rights management/ copyright system) standard is used for most new book releases. The benefits of an ebook : No paper and ink used, no transport costs, which means the electronic version of a book is up to 70% cheaper tan the paper printed edition.

For existing BeBook users the update will be available as a free download from our website: www.mybebook.com.

[pilotbob]

Congratulations.... I hope the BeBook is a smashing success!

Question... does the Mobipocket support include dictionary lookup support also?

BOb

[imaredr]

I went to the update page and I didn't see anything reference mobi support. The update version I saw was 1.27. Is the update available now? Thanks.

Ellen

[Leaping Gnome]

Nice to see advertisements on the front page as "news".

[Nate the great]

I wouldn't call it an ad; press release would be a better description.

But the Mobipocket support is newsworthy. And so is the sales figure.

[Slite]

And as stated earlier, would be nice if the upgrade was downaloadable from their homepage already! I need my mobi-fix!

[casimirocardoso]

I've had my Bebook for two months now and I love it to bits. It just keeps getting better and better. And, yes, I'm just a simple customer.

[=X=]

Kind of interesting that the video they have on their site has the reviewers picking the SONY PRS-505 over the Iliad and BeBook.

=X=

[DMcCunney]

Originally Posted by Slite

And as stated earlier, would be nice if the upgrade was downaloadable from their homepage already! I need my mobi-fix!

Did you look here?

(Click on FREE BEBOOK SOFTWARE UPDATE beneath the NEWS header on the right hand column.)
______
Dennis

[daffy4u]

Originally Posted by =X=

Kind of interesting that the video they have on their site has the reviewers picking the SONY PRS-505 over the Iliad and BeBook.

=X=

I found that quite curious myself. I kept thinking "maybe you don't really want this on your front page".

[Nate the great]

Originally Posted by DMcCunney

Did you look here?

(Click on FREE BEBOOK SOFTWARE UPDATE beneath the NEWS header on the right hand column.)
______
Dennis

The only one there is 1.27, which came out in July. You can find a link to it here on MobileRead as well.

[astra]

Originally Posted by daffy4u

I found that quite curious myself. I kept thinking "maybe you don't really want this on your front page".

Maybe because the main point why BeBook lost to others was that it didn't have any DRM supported format on it and they rectified the situation since then?

[TadW]

This press release is total BS to me.

Apart from being extremely “green”, e-reading has been praised as the future of reading.

How is it "extremely green"? It's an ongoing debate at Mobileread, and I would love to see your sources of research.

Some newspapers go as far as stating “it's the next big thing after the iPod, the BeBook is like an iPod for books.”

Funny, I remember that analogy, but I always read it in the context of the Amazon Kindle or Sony Reader. Google doesn't help here either. How about telling us the names of these newspapers?

Because the BeBook is open source...

Where can I download the open source code? Perhaps the GPL Violation homepage can help me out here.

...it's value for money: most formats, a complimentary leather case and thousands of books included.

It's more expensive than the Amazon Kindle, and for that I get a complimentary leather case and thousands of books - ripped without further editing from Project Gutenberg? What a great deal indeed. You forgot to mention the ear phones and the USB cable.

New Update : MobiPocket support... This means BeBook owners now have access to virtually any new book released.

Where is the promised update? Why make a press release if you know that you cannot deliver in time?

Anyways, if you want to get a better impression of the company behind BeBook (who, oh the irony, also produces and promotes covers for the Kindle), check out this interview video:

http://www.viddler.com/explore/Charbax/videos/34/

[TadW]

And regarding the 30'000 number...

We heard bullish rumors (TechCrunch) that Amazon sold around 240'000 Kindles within nine months (from early November 2007 to August 2008. That's ~ 26'000 Kindles a month.

BeBook claims to have sold 30'000 units within three months (from end of May to end of August (=beginning of IFA exhibit)). That's ~ 10'000 BeBooks a month.

I don't know, but something doesn't seem right here...

[torbich]

Originally Posted by TadW

And regarding the 30'000 number...
...
I don't know, but something doesn't seem right here...

I agree with you.
LBook (Ukrainian and Russian analogue of BeBook) claims also about 30.000 sold, but since october 2007, and LBook can be easily found in many B&M stores as well as in internet ones. Besides, there is a huge community of LBook owners (the-ebook.org).
Apollo XXI also sells rebranded Hanlin V3, and there is Spanish-speaking community of its users.
If BeBook sold 30.000 units, two questions arose:
1) Do all this Books sold throw the main site?
2) Where is the huge community of BeBook users?