eBook.de Joins Tolino Alliance: A Strategic Move for the eBook Market
It was rumored not too long ago that the Tolino Alliance would soon be adding another member. Today is the day: eBook.de is joining the bookselling alliance. After Sony, their previous hardware partner, withdrew from the eBook reader business, a replacement was certainly needed. With the rapidly gaining market share of Tolino devices, the Libri subsidiary has indeed made a smart move.
From now on, all current Tolino devices will also be sold in the eBook.de online shop. This includes the Tolino Shine, Vision 2, and the Tab 8″.
“Through our partnership with the Tolino Alliance, we can offer our customers the leading eReading solution and the highly well-tested Tolino products in the future. At the same time, as a pioneer and specialist in eBooks, our participation strengthens the Tolino Alliance and thus the German eBook initiative in the global market,” commented eBook.de’s managing director, Per Dalheimer, on the move.
Important Partnership for eBook.de and Tolino Alliance
The new Tolino Vision 2 now available for pre-order at eBook.de
There’s no doubt that this is an extremely important step for eBook.de, but also for the Tolino Alliance, whose members have been experiencing a bit of a rough patch lately. Following international expansions, the rest of the German market is also being more tightly knitted. It was evident as early as May this year that the Libri subsidiary had been eyeing the Tolino devices for a while. At that time, they promptly responded to the rapidly growing market share of the German bookselling alliance in the eBook sector by launching a very comprehensive guide page for the Tolino devices.
Another key point is the opportunity for bookstores affiliated with Libri (i.e., those using the company’s online shop) to also sell Tolino devices. This approach was already in use with Sony. After the Tolino Alliance’s negotiations with independent booksellers failed some time ago, the eBook readers are now finally making it (at least partially) into local bookstores beyond just the chain stores.
To kick off the Tolino offering at eBook.de, 100 Shine eReaders are being raffled. The participation period is from October 8 to 15, 2014.
