Hunt for ebook reader in India
Posted by Prashant - 26/11/09 at 06:11:23 pmI get a feeling of remorse thinking about the drop in the amount of reading activity I used to do earlier to what I do now. They were good old days when you had that mental make to churn book after book, but these days it is different. Habit of reading has done the vanishing act to such perfection that even Houdini will be proud of its flawlessness. So it was in an attempt to reinvigorate this almost dead wont that I was bitten by the ebook reader shopping bug. The idea that with this 6 inch by 11 inch photo frame like device I can stay sink in to my bed and read thousands of books without straining my eyes (like reading from my laptop) made me want to buy this device. Thus started this journey of research on various e-book reader devices available and ways of buying them so that the cost remain low.
At the outset let me clarify I have not bought any device because at the point of writing this rant, I found the cost of these devices in India is way too high than what I would like to pay.
So it started with me thinking what do I want out of this device. The list is simple;
- Cost should be less than 10 K INR. 14K would be a stretch.
- It should not be too small(mobile phone form factors) nor too big (Kindle DX) and it should be handy. Ideally 6” in width.
- It should have E-Ink technology. Screens build with this technology are easy on your eyes unlike say your laptop screen. There are ebook readers which are built with screen driven by non-E Ink technologies. They also claim that it is as effective as E Ink screens. But I am not sure if I want to take a chance on these.
- There are rumours that ebook readers that display color other than black, white and grey are being planned. I am not sure if this is a must have criteria. But the device should be capable of displaying 8 shades of grey. 4 shades of grey is also fine but not sure how crisp the images would be.
- There should be a easy way to transfer books on and off the device. Preferably through USB cable. I dont think wireless transfer to the device is something that I would ever need. Even if I am traveling, I dont think I am that busy that I cant do it through a USB cable prior to my travel. So wireless is an option that I am not even considering.
- It should support various document formats. More the merry. But it must support at least non-DRM PDF,text, images (gif,jpg) and mp3
- It should have a built in dictionary and search functionality. Never underestimate the power of an inbuilt dictionary.
- It should allow creation of custom folders.
- It should preferably support at least the important Indian languages (Kannada).
- The OS driving the device should preferably be open source. This is important because, the chances that someone will code enhancements and provide additional plugins is higher and by using open source the over all cost generally comes down and hopefully it will be passed on to the customers.
- Ebook reader company should have a history of frequently release of newer firmware for the device.
- It should allow external memory cards of bigger capacity. The larger capacity card it allows the better.
With this feature wishlist in place, it was time to look at the various ebook readers in the market. A good place to start is the Mobile Read Wiki page. I think it has listed almost all the ebook readers which are currently available in the market.
Pocket book 360°
Liked this device, it supports lots of format, its relatively small(5′), but its kind of cute. No fancy stuff like Wireless, touch and does not support handwriting, but is good enough for reading books. It sells at $240 and can be shipped to India. I would have bought this device, but considering the total amount amount after including customs duty, which you need to pay, it is not worth it
Cybook Opus:
Yet another device in the market, but is damn costly. Not sure even if I were willing to shell out that kind of cash I would buy this device.
Hanlin V5:
Yet another device in the market. Sells at $250, add customs duty and its not worth it.
Readius (unreleased):
No idea on this.
Hanvon WISEreader N526:
This is also pretty nice. It has the hand writing recognition, which can be used to highlight sentences and make notes. I send an email couple of weeks back to these guys asking if they ship it to India. Yet to hear from them.
Sony Touch Edition PRS-600:
Its pretty good but does not ship to India and is pretty expensive. Not worth the price.
Kindle 2:
Ships to India, but then its a pain to get the ebook in and out of the device. Considering the custom duties its damn expensive.
Cool-er Classic:
They sell at $300. It does not have any great features that other ebook readers don’t have. They ask you to select a country before they display the price tag. So for India its $300, not sure if this includes customs duty. If it does not then its not worth the price.
NUUT2 :
No idea
iriver Story:
Looks good. Not released yet I guess and I am sure it will be pretty costly.
Nook:
Pretty good bit does not ship to India. Very expensive also.
IRex iLiad series:
Ridiculously high price.
So if you are in India and want to buy a ebook reader, you are basically out of luck. You either wait for someone to come up with a reader manufactured in India which will bring the cost of these devices to where they are suppose to be or you can ask some one who is traveling from US to India to get one for you.
I tried these options too but it works out pretty expensive
- 20North
This will allow you buy US products from India, especially the one which are not currently being shipped to India. But again customs make it really expensive. But sometimes they come up with some schemes because of which you get products at US prices. But none existed when I looked for Ebook Reader.
- Shipito
This will allow to purchase products in US and then get it shipped to India or for that matter anywhere in the world. Again I don’t think there is a way to escape the customs.
I even tried the Ebay Gobal Easy Buy, again very expensive. The only reseller of Ebook readers in India that I could find is Ereaderindia. Based out of Chennai these guys sell Hanlin and Cybook readers. While I was browsing their site, found the contact number of proprietor of this firm and obviously called him. What an conversation it turned out to be. My conversation started with me letting him know about my intention of buying an ebook reader. What followed was something which I had never expected. He patiently listened to me until I completed and then explained to me why buying his products at the current price was really a bad idea. He actually convinced me reconsider my buying decision and asked me to wait for another 6 months when the prices will drop. Now how many people like him do you get to meet? Not many at all.
So with that sagely advice, a halo appreared and I attained enlightment. A realization that buying these devices was indeed a bad idea at this point of time dawned upon me thus ending the ebook shopping journey. But something good happened during the course of this journey. Not sure how but I happen to pick a paper back edition of Rohinton Mistry’s “A fine Balance”. Slowly but steadly I have inched towards the 3/4th mark of this 500 odd pages of extreamly creative writing. Hopefully it will continue this way.
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Hi,
I’m just getting started with my new blog. Would you want to exchange links on our blog-rolls?
BTW – I’m up to about 100 visitors per day.
Comment by Susan Kishner — November 26, 2009 #
Your journey’s end disappointed me…(or enlightened me). My foolhardy quest seems to find no end.
Comment by Jatin — June 14, 2010 #
So, have you bought any E-Book reader yet?
Comment by Saurabh Sharma — July 6, 2010 #
Yep bought a Pi Reader from Infibeam
Comment by Prashant — July 16, 2010 #