Sharp isn’t the only Japanese company getting ready for the upcoming e-book wars. Tomorrow, Toshiba is throwing its hat into the ring. But unlike Sharp (which starts in Japan), Toshiba will offer e-books in the US first – with plans to expand to Japan, Europe, and other places later.
Big T’s subsidiary Toshiba America Information Systems teamed up with America-based K-NFB Reading Technology to distribute book titles through Book Place, a special website. Users can expect 1 million titles to be offered from the get-go (free and paid books). For access, it’s necessary to download a piece of software called Blio, which is made by K-NFB.
Blio runs on PCs and other platforms, for example Android- or iOS-powered devices. Toshiba itself has the libretto W100 in its line-up, a double-screen mini notebook tailor-made for usage as an e-reader.