Australia and New Zealand: New ebook reader - Page 2

cbell · 08-08-2009, 02:03 AM

Hi sherman. It's all about GST.

AU buyers have to pay 10% GST up front. NZ buyers usually pay local GST when their readers go through customs.

We've received some orders from NZ for ECO Readers and we've sold quite a few HanLin V3s there already.

sherman · 08-08-2009, 02:40 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by cbell

Hi sherman. It's all about GST.

AU buyers have to pay 10% GST up front. NZ buyers usually pay local GST when their readers go through customs.

We've received some orders from NZ for ECO Readers and we've sold quite a few HanLin V3s there already.

Ah, thanks for clearing that up.

Now if only I didn't already own a PRS-505...

Still there's always that bookstore that you say is in the works (assuming you end up selling ADE ePub that is...)

Digireado · 08-11-2009, 12:22 AM

My luck to you that this does well.
Sadly though, at the rrp and black and white screen I'll be sticking with my iphone for reading!

I'm a keen ebook reader, but can't afford the costs - hoping they come down, and the usability goes up!

Glad to hear you will have Australian and NZ publishers, look forward to hearing who they are when you launch your website!

fugazied · 08-11-2009, 12:37 AM

This actually looks pretty decent, good price for the hardware so it comes down to what price they can offer books at.

Australians read a lot and get into technology quickly (I visit there frequently), so it's one of those markets that should embrace ebook devices.
I'm still not sure why Amazon hasn't got itself into action and at least gotten Kindle into a few of these other markets because they would sell a LOT.

cbell · 08-11-2009, 02:21 AM

Welcome to Mobileread, Digireado. Your username is brilliant. Makes me giggle each time I read it. Very clever. If only we'd thought of the name Digireado before you... now you need an appropriate avatar, with a selection of paintings err fonts on it.

You'll be able to buy content for your iphone from our ebook store.

Thanks, fugazied. Our devices aren't tied to our ebook store and our ebooks aren't restricted to our devices

sherman · 08-11-2009, 03:11 AM

If your store has a decent range with decent prices, I will definitely become a customer.

Basically, you need to give us (the customer) a reason to shop at your store instead of the likes of BooksOnBoard, Fictionwise, etc. If a person can buy the same eBook elsewhere at a fraction of your price (taking into account exchange rate), I doubt many would be buying from you. Heck, I wouldn't even mind paying a dollar or two extra in some cases to support AU/NZ based publishers.

IMHO, the prices New Zealanders get charged for books over here is disgusting, and I suspect this is the case for Australians as well.

A (hardback) example - I was looking at buying David Weber's new book "By Heresies Distressed", but one look at the whitcoulls price means I will wait my turn at the Library. They want 60 NZD thank you very much, despite the fact that the US list price is 28 USD (41.40 NZD at today's exchange rate) and most stores seem to be selling it for around 18 USD.

cbell · 08-13-2009, 01:49 AM

Yep, I hear what you're saying, sherman.

DA has been successfully sellling books for nearly 60 years and we've been selling academic ebooks for many years. I've been working with ebooks, ejournals and databases for a long time.

For those lucky people who've pre-ordered an ECO Reader, they're on the way! Aust orders are all being despatched from Melbourne this afternoon (Thursday) and NZ orders leave here tomorrow. NZ users, please allow a couple of extra days to clear customs. We have plenty of ECO Readers left in stock and we're processing orders quickly.

We also have the HanLin V5 (5" screen) in stock in Melbourne and we're accepting orders now. Price is A$359.00.

Alan Baxter · 08-13-2009, 02:53 AM

This looks great. Couple of questions though:

Will it be able to display Kindle books bought from Amazon and downloaded from a PC?

Will indie authors be able to make their books available at the store?

cbell · 08-13-2009, 02:57 AM

Hi Alan, Amazon chooses not to sell Kindle books to Australians and New Zealanders.

No, we won't be supporting indie authors to start with.

http://www.smashwords.com is a good resource for indie authors and one of my favourite sites.

Alan Baxter · 08-13-2009, 03:01 AM

cbell - We can get Kindles if we have friends in the US that are willing to share, but it's all a bit complicated. Just wondering if this reader supports .mobi really.

I love Smashwords - all my stuff is available there already. I recently found DriveThru too. However, it would be good to have an Aus based store that supports us.

cbell · 08-13-2009, 03:11 AM

ECO Readers support non-DRM Mobipocket format.

We decided to concentrate on Adobe DE (ePub and PDF) support, as Mobipocket insists on exclusivity on e-Ink devices and it's primarily become an American format.

I feel that Adobe DE is more suitable for Australia & NZ. You'll see that nearly all e-Ink devices readily available to Australians and New Zealanders will soon offer Adobe DE, some with alternative firmware offering Mobi support, but some will drop Mobi support altogether in favour of Adobe DE (like the HanLin V5).

Keep in mind that *most* purchased ebooks have DRM and *most* free ebooks don't have DRM. There's always exceptions

Alan Baxter · 08-13-2009, 03:57 AM

You can buy mine DRM free.

All ebooks should be DRM free.

HarryT · 08-13-2009, 04:01 AM

I'm a little curious about the original poster's comment that this is "an ebook reader designed for Australians and New Zealanders.". It appears to be a completely standard Hanlin V3.

cbell · 08-13-2009, 04:25 AM

Hi HarryT, DA Direct is an Australian-owned company and Central Book Services is our trade division. We have staff who travel constantly around Australia and New Zealand. We chose an ebook reader for our own branding that we feel suits our market (which we know and understand).

Our ECO Readers have Australian content pre-loaded and the firmware is designed to suit the conditions we requested. We offer an Australian helpdesk and local support.

A USB wall charger, designed for use in Australia and New Zealand, is included in the ECO Reader package.

Repairs/replacements are managed on-site in Melbourne. Our ebook store will sell content suitable for our ECO Readers.

Perhaps I should have said: This is an ebook reader designed for users in Australia and New Zealand.

Alan, we can't determine whether the ebooks we sell should have DRM. This is decided by the authors and publishers. If we only sold non-DRM ebooks, our store wouldn't be viable.

HarryT · 08-13-2009, 04:26 AM

Thank you for the clarification.

08-13-2009, 04:25 AM	#29
cbell Frenetic Posts: 590 Karma: 8181 Join Date: Apr 2008 Location: Australia Device: iLiad V2	Hi HarryT, DA Direct is an Australian-owned company and Central Book Services is our trade division. We have staff who travel constantly around Australia and New Zealand. We chose an ebook reader for our own branding that we feel suits our market (which we know and understand). Our ECO Readers have Australian content pre-loaded and the firmware is designed to suit the conditions we requested. We offer an Australian helpdesk and local support. A USB wall charger, designed for use in Australia and New Zealand, is included in the ECO Reader package. Repairs/replacements are managed on-site in Melbourne. Our ebook store will sell content suitable for our ECO Readers. Perhaps I should have said: This is an ebook reader designed for users in Australia and New Zealand. Alan, we can't determine whether the ebooks we sell should have DRM. This is decided by the authors and publishers. If we only sold non-DRM ebooks, our store wouldn't be viable. Last edited by cbell; 08-13-2009 at 05:19 AM. Reason: Added comment to Alan Baxter & USB wall charger info

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08-08-2009, 02:03 AM	#16
cbell Frenetic Posts: 590 Karma: 8181 Join Date: Apr 2008 Location: Australia Device: iLiad V2	Hi sherman. It's all about GST. AU buyers have to pay 10% GST up front. NZ buyers usually pay local GST when their readers go through customs. We've received some orders from NZ for ECO Readers and we've sold quite a few HanLin V3s there already.

08-11-2009, 12:22 AM	#18
Digireado Junior Member Posts: 1 Karma: 10 Join Date: Aug 2009 Location: Sydney, Australia Device: iphone	My luck to you that this does well. Sadly though, at the rrp and black and white screen I'll be sticking with my iphone for reading! I'm a keen ebook reader, but can't afford the costs - hoping they come down, and the usability goes up! Glad to hear you will have Australian and NZ publishers, look forward to hearing who they are when you launch your website!

08-11-2009, 12:37 AM	#19
fugazied Wizard Posts: 1,305 Karma: 1958 Join Date: Jan 2009 Device: iPod Touch	This actually looks pretty decent, good price for the hardware so it comes down to what price they can offer books at. Australians read a lot and get into technology quickly (I visit there frequently), so it's one of those markets that should embrace ebook devices. I'm still not sure why Amazon hasn't got itself into action and at least gotten Kindle into a few of these other markets because they would sell a LOT.

08-11-2009, 02:21 AM	#20
cbell Frenetic Posts: 590 Karma: 8181 Join Date: Apr 2008 Location: Australia Device: iLiad V2	Welcome to Mobileread, Digireado. Your username is brilliant. Makes me giggle each time I read it. Very clever. If only we'd thought of the name Digireado before you... now you need an appropriate avatar, with a selection of paintings err fonts on it. You'll be able to buy content for your iphone from our ebook store. Thanks, fugazied. Our devices aren't tied to our ebook store and our ebooks aren't restricted to our devices

08-11-2009, 03:11 AM	#21
sherman Guru Posts: 867 Karma: 2676800 Join Date: Aug 2008 Location: Taranaki - NZ Device: Kobo Aura H2O, Kobo Forma	If your store has a decent range with decent prices, I will definitely become a customer. Basically, you need to give us (the customer) a reason to shop at your store instead of the likes of BooksOnBoard, Fictionwise, etc. If a person can buy the same eBook elsewhere at a fraction of your price (taking into account exchange rate), I doubt many would be buying from you. Heck, I wouldn't even mind paying a dollar or two extra in some cases to support AU/NZ based publishers. IMHO, the prices New Zealanders get charged for books over here is disgusting, and I suspect this is the case for Australians as well. A (hardback) example - I was looking at buying David Weber's new book "By Heresies Distressed", but one look at the whitcoulls price means I will wait my turn at the Library. They want 60 NZD thank you very much, despite the fact that the US list price is 28 USD (41.40 NZD at today's exchange rate) and most stores seem to be selling it for around 18 USD.

08-13-2009, 01:49 AM	#22
cbell Frenetic Posts: 590 Karma: 8181 Join Date: Apr 2008 Location: Australia Device: iLiad V2	Yep, I hear what you're saying, sherman. DA has been successfully sellling books for nearly 60 years and we've been selling academic ebooks for many years. I've been working with ebooks, ejournals and databases for a long time. For those lucky people who've pre-ordered an ECO Reader, they're on the way! Aust orders are all being despatched from Melbourne this afternoon (Thursday) and NZ orders leave here tomorrow. NZ users, please allow a couple of extra days to clear customs. We have plenty of ECO Readers left in stock and we're processing orders quickly. We also have the HanLin V5 (5" screen) in stock in Melbourne and we're accepting orders now. Price is A$359.00.

08-13-2009, 02:53 AM	#23
Alan Baxter Connoisseur Posts: 85 Karma: 198 Join Date: Aug 2009 Location: South Coast of NSW, Australia Device: Laptop for now, iPhone soon.	This looks great. Couple of questions though: Will it be able to display Kindle books bought from Amazon and downloaded from a PC? Will indie authors be able to make their books available at the store?

08-13-2009, 02:57 AM	#24
cbell Frenetic Posts: 590 Karma: 8181 Join Date: Apr 2008 Location: Australia Device: iLiad V2	Hi Alan, Amazon chooses not to sell Kindle books to Australians and New Zealanders. No, we won't be supporting indie authors to start with. http://www.smashwords.com is a good resource for indie authors and one of my favourite sites.

08-13-2009, 03:01 AM	#25
Alan Baxter Connoisseur Posts: 85 Karma: 198 Join Date: Aug 2009 Location: South Coast of NSW, Australia Device: Laptop for now, iPhone soon.	cbell - We can get Kindles if we have friends in the US that are willing to share, but it's all a bit complicated. Just wondering if this reader supports .mobi really. I love Smashwords - all my stuff is available there already. I recently found DriveThru too. However, it would be good to have an Aus based store that supports us.

08-13-2009, 03:11 AM	#26
cbell Frenetic Posts: 590 Karma: 8181 Join Date: Apr 2008 Location: Australia Device: iLiad V2	ECO Readers support non-DRM Mobipocket format. We decided to concentrate on Adobe DE (ePub and PDF) support, as Mobipocket insists on exclusivity on e-Ink devices and it's primarily become an American format. I feel that Adobe DE is more suitable for Australia & NZ. You'll see that nearly all e-Ink devices readily available to Australians and New Zealanders will soon offer Adobe DE, some with alternative firmware offering Mobi support, but some will drop Mobi support altogether in favour of Adobe DE (like the HanLin V5). Keep in mind that most purchased ebooks have DRM and most free ebooks don't have DRM. There's always exceptions

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08-13-2009, 03:57 AM	#27
Alan Baxter Connoisseur Posts: 85 Karma: 198 Join Date: Aug 2009 Location: South Coast of NSW, Australia Device: Laptop for now, iPhone soon.	You can buy mine DRM free. All ebooks should be DRM free.

08-13-2009, 04:01 AM	#28
HarryT eBook Enthusiast Posts: 85,544 Karma: 93383043 Join Date: Nov 2006 Location: UK Device: Kindle Oasis 2, iPad Pro 10.5", iPhone 6	I'm a little curious about the original poster's comment that this is "an ebook reader designed for Australians and New Zealanders.". It appears to be a completely standard Hanlin V3.

08-13-2009, 04:26 AM	#30
HarryT eBook Enthusiast Posts: 85,544 Karma: 93383043 Join Date: Nov 2006 Location: UK Device: Kindle Oasis 2, iPad Pro 10.5", iPhone 6	Thank you for the clarification.