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WHS is selling iLiad

19.08.08 Graeme Neill

W H Smith has become the second bookseller after Borders to stock the iRex iLiad e-book reader. The device is on sale on W H Smith's website for £399 and comes with 50 books preloaded.

WHS sells e-books from its dedicated e-book website, ebooks.whsmith.co.uk, which it runs with Overdrive. The microsite does not refer to the iLiad but it does stock books in Adobe PDF and Mobipocket format, both of which can be used on the e-book reader.

Borders became the first bookseller in May to stock e-book readers when it announced in May. Twelve stores now sell the device for £399. Last month a spokesperson for W H Smith told the Bookseller that the retailer was cautious about the mainstream success of e-book readers. It said: "It is unlikely that the market will see significant growth until the price of the hardware hits a £99 price point or is accessed through new-generation mobile phones."

Next month Waterstone's will sell the Sony Reader in 205 stores for £199 and is currently taking pre-orders online.

Retail W H Smith waterstone's Borders Graeme Neill Home ebooks iLiad

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By Adrian Graham

This is pure genius if it's true: "WHS sells e-books from its dedicated e-book website ... However, it is unclear whether these e-books can be used on the iLiad" I think people will want to see the device before they buy it and having a high street presence will be important in that respect (I wonder if Amazon will contemplate seeling the Kindle through other retail outlets apart from itself?). I agree about the price. I think eReaders do need to be less than £99 for them to make a hit. http://www.adriangraham.co.uk/

19 Aug 08 10:31

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By George Walkley

Actually it's not that unclear. The FAQs on the WHSmith website state that they sell ebooks in PDF, Microsoft Reader and Mobipocket formats. A quick bit of research on the iRex website shows that the Iliad supports PDF and Mobipocket, with support for other formats to come.

19 Aug 08 10:56

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By GraemeNeill

I've updated with the changes - editing error on our part, apologies.

19 Aug 08 11:08

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By philip.jones@bookseller.co.uk

George, I don't agree: if I was buying an iliad from WHS, or even Borders, I'd want to know that I can go back to them for the actual ebooks, for some reason WHS fails to make this very clear on the ebooks bit of its site (powered by Overdrive). I certainly wouldn't expect to have to read the FAQs page or do further research to work this out. It's a missed opportunity for WHS, having decided to sell the iliad. An even bigger miss, is that if you click the ebooks link from WHS' own site, there is no mention that it is selling the iliad, though I would have thought ebook buyers would be a target market for an ebook device. Seems to me the two sides of WHS' online business aren't talking to each other (the Iliad is listed under "stationery", ebooks in "books"). A far cry from how Waterstone's has gone about launching the Sony Reader.

19 Aug 08 11:37

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By George Walkley

Philip, I don't think we're in disagreement as we're talking about two separate things here. The first, whether the reader supports particular formats, is a straightforward technical question which is within my area of competence and which can be resolved with some research. The second, which you correctly identify, is the disconnect between the WHS businesses, on which I pass no comment - though your opinion is interesting. Having reflected on this over lunch, the other question that hasn't been touched on is whether epub is one of the "other formats" promised by iRex - if this is the case, it would potentially increase the range of titles available quite significantly.

19 Aug 08 12:11

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By George Walkley

Not to mention bolstering support for the epub standard.

19 Aug 08 12:12

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