Mayersche and Osiander Embrace Tolino, Phasing Out PocketBook in Germany’s eBook Market
The German eBook market has been evolving since the launch of the Tolino Alliance. Despite Amazon’s relatively late market entry, the US retail giant was able to capture most of the digital customers before 2013, due to a lack of prominent competing offers. However, everything changed with the introduction of the Tolino Shine, as major German booksellers joined forces to stand up to Amazon, offering an equally good digital reading experience to customers.
In recent years, sales have been evidently quite successful, although the insolvency of Weltbild, the end of Club Bertelsmann, and the closure of Telekom Pageplace have slightly reduced the once extensive distribution network.
With the entry of the book wholesaler Libri last year, a course correction was initiated, and now this situation is being finally addressed. As speculated on ALLESebook.de a week ago, the two regional retailers Mayersche and Osiander are entering the Tolino business. This has been announced to the press today through a release. Moreover, the two booksellers are relying exclusively on Tolino distribution, thereby overturning the previous sales concept, which likely means PocketBook will be completely phased out.
A similar move was already observed at eBook.de, where other models (from PocketBook) were also sorted out before the introduction of Tolino.
Excited Tolino Stakeholders
Naturally, the Tolino partners, along with the two newcomers, are very pleased with this step. “The success factors of Tolino are clearly the openness of the system, which gives customers the choice of retailer, and the continuous innovation for our customers with the Tolino reading devices and the entire ecosystem,” states Weltbild.
Michael Busch of Thalia comments on the development as follows: “The addition of our new partners, Mayersche and Osiander, demonstrates that Tolino has already become an indispensable eReading presence. Openness, indeed, does not exclude, but includes. With every new partner, Tolino gains visibility and presence precisely where customers seek knowledgeable advice about books. A combination that makes Tolino the eReading brand of Europe.”
Even for those who haven’t closely followed market developments, it’s evident that the Tolino brand has become a cornerstone of the German eBook market. Noteworthy is the mention of the European context since the booksellers’ alliance is active not only in German-speaking regions but also further afield, both to the south and north. Further expansion seems merely a matter of time.
Finally, we want to take a look at Hugendubel’s statement: “An alliance of competitors has achieved the impossible. Nearly every second eBook reader in Germany is a customer of the Tolino Alliance. In about one third of German bookstores today, you can purchase a Tolino.” Since November 2014, we’ve known that the Tolino Alliance holds a combined share of over 45 percent of German eBook sales. With the entry of the two regional retailers, this share is likely to shift even more in favor of the bookselling partners.
Two New Tolino eReaders for the Frankfurt Book Fair
A postscript to the press release states: “In time for the book fair, the Tolino partners from the bookselling sector, together with Telekom as an outstanding technology partner, will introduce two new top-notch reading devices”.
We already knew there would be a new eBook reader, as we exclusively reported that the alliance’s next flagship model will be named Tolino Vision 3 HD. This was seen in a description for a screen protector (for the Vision 2) before the text addition was removed.
The new high-end model will likely look the same as the Tolino Vision 2 and have the same dimensions but will feature a high-resolution 300 ppi display—just like the Kindle Paperwhite, Voyage, and Kobo Glo HD.
It remains to be seen what the second new development will be. It’s conceivable that they will launch a new tablet (and refer to it in the statement as a “reading device”). However, it’s also conceivable that the Tolino Shine with E-Ink Carta display will be relaunched. This wouldn’t be entirely surprising when considering various competitive models, as many manufacturers have upgraded their illuminated E-Ink Pearl models. The Shine Kobo Aura and PocketBook Sense are currently the only remaining illuminated eBook readers with Pearl technology.
PocketBook Returns to the Underdog Role
The biggest setback from the entry of Mayersche and Osiander bookstores must surely be endured by their former technology partner PocketBook. The former underdog of the German eReader market had made a name for itself in the mainstream over the past years, partly thanks to its presence with the two regional retailers, and was able to attract many customers, particularly with the Touch Lux 2.
However, things were anything but smooth in the PocketBook camp in the second half of 2014, and especially the launch of the Ultra was… frustrating. The high-priced flagship model didn’t impress due to low contrast values and uneven lighting. The company’s intended showpiece quickly faded into obscurity, leaving PocketBook with a technically inferior (though generally still very good) Touch Lux 2 competing against the E-Ink Carta rivals.
The rather surprising launch of the Lux 3 (now finally with E-Ink Carta, including good lighting) improved the situation somewhat, but the announcement that it would be PocketBook’s only new release this year was not joyful news for the company’s fans.
With the imminent launch of the Tolino Vision 3 HD, all three major competitors (Amazon, Tolino, and Kobo) will be offering devices featuring so-called “Retina” displays, while PocketBook has the Lux 3 in its lineup at a barely lower price (RRP: 109 euros). The biggest problem now, however, is the loss of its two most important trading partners.
Without Osiander and the Mayersche bookstore, PocketBook virtually disappears from the German book market. While devices remain orderable via Umbreit and KNV for independent booksellers, and the cloud service launching at the Frankfurt Book Fair should enhance the offer, PocketBook is essentially relegated back to the role of the underdog due to the overwhelming market power of the Tolino alliance in the German digital market (and the consequent loss of the two regional distribution partners).
Germany Divided
And so we can ultimately note that the digital book market in Germany is now finally experiencing a division: on one side is Amazon, and on the other is the Tolino Alliance.
The two providers together hold at least 84 percent of the domestic eBook market, leaving only a small piece of the pie for the remaining competitors. However, it’s important to note in this context that the business structures of the two competitors are entirely different. The Tolino group consists of eight partners (Thalia, Weltbild, Hugendubel, Libri, Club Bertelsmann, Weltbild, Telekom, Mayersche, Osiander), who share half of the market among themselves. Meanwhile, Amazon controls the other half all by itself.
In contrast to PocketBook, little changes initially for Kobo regarding the new market situation, as the two regional outlets were already competitors of the Japanese-Canadian eReader specialist.
If anything, Kobo might gain in the long term due to PocketBook’s reduced visibility in Germany, as it’s likely that the company’s devices will be perceived by many people as the only alternative to Amazon and Tolino. Additionally, Kobo frequently stands out with various promotions at Media-Saturn and other electronics retailers, while PocketBook seems to have focused more on direct sales in the book trade in recent years and hasn’t been as prominently visible otherwise.
This rather clear market division does not always benefit customers, as a more heterogeneous offering is generally preferable. However, joining forces with Tolino was a logical step for Osiander and Mayersche, since if the technology partner doesn’t deliver competitive technology promptly, one naturally looks for alternatives. It can also be assumed that the effort involved with customized firmware and specially bundled packages in the previous PocketBook sales may have been greater than it will be in the future with Tolino sales.
As is often the case, we can once again conclude today: It will be exciting to see where the journey of the German eBook market will lead.
