The French company Bookeen is a veteran of the e-reader market...
The French company Bookeen is a veteran in the e-reader market and became known to a wider audience in Germany when Thalia entered into a partnership with the firm. The retail chain replaced its ill-fated Oyo 2 with the Bookeen Cybook Odyssey, which was a smart move at the time.
Integrated store solution at Thalia
Even though the Bookeen device had a few drawbacks in terms of features compared to Sony or Amazon, buying e-books directly on the device was relatively convenient thanks to built-in Wi-Fi and fast response times.
Bookeen ultimately managed to impress with its first front-lit model as well, although the very bluish lighting (which, however, was quite common with the first generation of illuminated e-readers) was a bit distracting.
Replaced by Tolino
When Thalia introduced the Tolino Shine in 2013 together with Weltbild, Hugendubel, Bertelsmann and Deutsche Telekom, Bookeen’s role in the German market was effectively sealed. Slowly but surely, the French company’s models were phased out or sold off. At one point it was announced that Thalia and Bookeen were aiming for another partnership, but it never went beyond the announcement.
The discontinued readers had no successors – Thalia & Co. focused entirely on the Tolino brand. As a result, Bookeen ultimately disappeared from the German market as well.
The company is still active in France, however, and has three devices on offer with the Ocean and Muse models. The 6-inch models (Muse Essential and Frontlight) are, however, only slightly revised reissues of the well-known Cybook Odyssey models. Bookeen also made negative headlines several times because the 8-inch Cybook Ocean was postponed repeatedly and ultimately only reached the market a year late.