Tolino Alliance Expands to Belgium: Shine eReader Now Available at Standaard Boekhandel

For quite some time, I’ve speculated that the Tolino Alliance might expand abroad. The support for the English menu introduced with the Tolino Vision was a cautious indication of this possibility. Additionally, there were already comments about this at the launch of the Tolino Shine. Now it has finally happened, although the expansion isn’t into the English-speaking market but to Belgium.

From now on, the Tolino Shine is available at Standaard Boekhandel, including over 22,000 Belgian and more than 369,000 English-language eBooks. In total, more than 500,000 digital books are to be offered. The eBook reader is priced at 99 euros, matching the already familiar German level. Currently, Standaard Boekhandel seems to be skipping the Vision with the E-Ink Carta display, as the device is not found on the bookseller’s homepage.

At the moment, Standaard Boekhandel is only offering the Tolino Shine

The website’s layout essentially corresponds to the typical Tolino design already known from the German partners. The screenshots or product photos of the Tolino Shine show the localized version of the interface, which cannot be selected on German devices. Along with the device, the appropriate accessories (cases, bags, screen protectors) are also being sold. On the Facebook page of the bookseller, there are already some photos of the sales area created for the Tolino offering.

All Possibilities Open Internationally

With the international launch of the Shine, the Tolino Alliance takes an important step into the future. In my opinion, this can’t be overstated because if the Belgium experiment succeeds, more markets are likely to follow. Outside of Germany (aside from the UK), European eBook markets are mostly in an earlier stage, which means the Tolino partners could significantly influence the growth of various other markets and not leave the field solely to Amazon.

It will now be interesting to see what the further approach looks like, and naturally, we hope that the Tolino Alliance calculates better than Barnes & Noble did a few years ago. The American bookseller launched in the UK after many delays but could never really establish itself despite massive reductions in device prices. More European markets were supposed to follow, but ultimately the expansion was limited to the rather disappointing Windows app offering. As it stands, it doesn’t look like the Americans will change this anytime soon – the spin-off of the Nook division is already planned according to the Wall Street Journal.

But I don’t want to paint too bleak a picture here. So far, the approach of the Tolino partners has been well-considered and calculated, at least outwardly, so I have no doubt that more international partners will join in the future. The first step is now successfully completed – and as we know, that’s always the hardest.