Tuesday, August 3, 2010

Wink to enter India’s e-reader market

India’s fledgling e-book reader business is set to gain a new player next month with the unveiling of Wink, about two weeks before Amazon.com’s latest iteration of its Kindle is launched.

EC Media (International) Pvt. Ltd, a Bangalore-based company that has been working on the product for the past year, plans to start selling the Wink on 15 August, according to Binoo K. John, vice-president, content. It will join the Pi e-reader, which was launched in February.

Vishal Mehta, founder and CEO of Ahmedabad-based Infibeam.com, which sells the Pi, priced at Rs9,999, expects the market to surge as its catalogue widens.

“From 1.5 lakh titles, we will add four lakh titles from all major publishers,”he said. “Having sold infibeam Pi in tens of thousands since February, we hope to double our sales by the end of the year.”

Wink’s basic model with a six-inch screen will be priced at Rs8,000, while the nine-inch advanced version will cost Rs22,000. While the six-inch screen has resolution of 800x600 pixels and weighs 260g with battery, the advanced model (1024x768-pixel resolution) weighs 430g. EC Media hopes to sell 25,000 units by the end of the year. The new six-inch Kindle starts at $139 (around Rs6,400).

Full report here Mint

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