Check out the iRex DR800SG, a wireless e-reader for the US market from iRex Technologies. This is going to be sold in the Best Buy stores for US$399. For this, you get a device to which you can download digital books from Barnes & Noble’s e-bookstore and 1,100+ newspapers from Newspaper Direct.
The e-reader marketplace is hotting up in the US. It is sure to gain traction here, eventually.
While publishers tell us that e-reader consumers are different to paper based product consumers, there will be a migration of consumers from paper to e-reader. We need to take this into consideration when planning for our newsagencies.
The ideal scenario would be that we play a channel role in providing content for the readers. This will not happen. Readers like this new unit from iRex provide publishers a better opportunity to reduce supply chain costs.
Our best opportunity, as far as I can see today, is to be a channel through which readers are sold and even introduced to Australian consumers.