Comments on: InfiBeam’s EBook Reader Priced at 9,999. Stiff Competition for Amazon in India?

By: Santosh

Santosh — Sat, 12 Jun 2010 09:01:07 +0000

Thanks Ashish , i contacted this Chennai based company…good rates. thanks again

By: ramesh khandey

ramesh khandey — Sun, 02 May 2010 12:32:02 +0000

is there any pendrive option so that i can read the books i have already.

By: Banibrata Dutta

Banibrata Dutta — Sat, 10 Apr 2010 19:52:48 +0000

I’d suspect Pi to be an OEM Chindle with a screenprinted Infibeam logo, sold at Indian prices. The eInk technology is a slightly expensive at the moment, but prices should definitely fall… and I do expect eBook readers in the 6-7K range by year end.

By: Kris

Kris — Wed, 31 Mar 2010 07:40:27 +0000

Ya great point! Does anyone know where we get Chinese Ebook readers in Mumbai? There are many places for chinese digital goods I hear but I dont know where.

By: AK

AK — Mon, 22 Mar 2010 07:20:36 +0000

20K or 10K either way its too expensive. It is obvious from the current situation that everybody will start making cheaper and cheaper readers until it gets down to say 3-5 thousand bucks. Meanwhile there’s also the Chinese guys who can sell us anything at peanuts compared to this. I have my fingers crossed for the Chinese Kindle(Chindle?)…

By: Utkarsh Sinha

Utkarsh Sinha — Fri, 12 Feb 2010 09:28:40 +0000

Ashish,

As usual Indian some selected Indian entrepreneurs just dont get it. They dont know how to innovate at all. The highly acclaimed ‘Infibeam Pi’ is NOTHING but JUST a RE-BRANDING exercise of ‘EGriver’ link : http://bit.ly/cxEGPm

I do not have anything AGAINST Infibeam, BUT they have done nothing great. They are trying to re-brand other’s product and sell it in India. I think Vishal would have never mentioned this.

It is called the ‘First Indian Ebook Reader’ ONLY if it is designed and manufactured in India.

#fail

By: Twitter Updates for 2010-02-01 | Upasana Taku 3D

Twitter Updates for 2010-02-01 | Upasana Taku 3D — Mon, 01 Feb 2010 21:43:33 +0000

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By: Twitter Updates for 2010-02-02 | Upasana Taku 3D

Twitter Updates for 2010-02-02 | Upasana Taku 3D — Mon, 01 Feb 2010 21:43:17 +0000

[...] curious about Infibeam's EBook Reader Priced at $200 Amazon r u listening? http://www.pluggd.in/ebook-reader-infibeam-pi-price-297/ [...]

By: techie

techie — Wed, 27 Jan 2010 18:20:29 +0000

It seems to be overpriced… I would rather buy a tablet

By: Manu

Manu — Wed, 27 Jan 2010 17:21:09 +0000

@Nilesh: They are selling epubs with DRM. There is not much infibeam can do as publishers will not agree to a non DRM product. The upside is that you are not limited to Pi as your only way of consuming the books.

By: Nilesh Trivedi

Nilesh Trivedi — Wed, 27 Jan 2010 15:58:44 +0000

Any kind of DRM on this device would be a showstopper for me.

Can I be assured that Infibeam or any publishers will not be able to revoke the book that I have purchased (like how Amazon did for ’1984′)?

Can I transfer my PDFs and documents in other formats directly to the device via USB and not by sending email to the provider?

Can I make unencrypted, device-independent backup copies of the purchased ebooks?

Am I restricted to Infibeam for firmware upgrades or can I use other providers like Rockbox?

Nobody in media seems to be asking the relevant questions to Infibeam.

cheers
nilesh

By: Manu

Manu — Wed, 27 Jan 2010 11:29:43 +0000

My take on the ebook reader is here http://www.manu-j.com/blog/kindle-vs-pi/464/ I think it is a bold step and they might find some success but I doubt that the Indian market is ready for this.

By: Nitin

Nitin — Wed, 27 Jan 2010 02:45:54 +0000

Unlike ipods and itunes where quality is a slight differenciation for apple vs cheaper alternatives, book reading on infibeam Pi should be similar to reading on amazon kindle — both use the same eink technology so no difference there.

in my opinion, cheaper pi is real innovation, i think. people may not want to pay 2x the price for access to wikipedia and amazon site from kindle. infibeam also has a good library of 1 lac ebooks from big publishers (same size when kindle launched) so dont see any big USP for amazon there…

By: Paul

Paul — Tue, 26 Jan 2010 23:31:52 +0000

Price-wise and feature-wise this sounds like a great, if not better product than Amazon.

But what about Kindle’s USP of partnerships and integration. Amazon somehow managed to strike a partnership with Indian Operators, whereby I can access Wikipedia and the Amazon website from anywhere via the existing GPRS and CDMA Networks.

This plus the seamless integration of the Kindle with e-book shopping on Amazon may just be the moat that Amazon needs to protect itself from cheaper alternatives.

On the other hand many people will hate the Kindle for exactly THAT reason: being restricted. This sort of strategy reminds me of iPods and iTunes. This combination had an equal amount of lovers and haters, but definitely worked out in the long run.

Thoughts?

By: Abhaya Agarwal

Abhaya Agarwal — Tue, 26 Jan 2010 17:36:35 +0000

While the pricing of device is indeed important, what about pricing of e-books? If e-books could be priced to provide cost savings of over 10k for the university students, I think that is where the killer deal would be.

Also what is the delivery mechanism for the device? Plug into PC or something like whispernet?

Abhaya

By: arvind

arvind — Tue, 26 Jan 2010 17:20:36 +0000

Branding would be a challenge @nitin. Economical publicity through word of mouth of technocrats and early adopters should help Pi make a good headway. Otherwise there are plenty of players near our coastline too. Apart from Gray market for the brand hungry dudes.

By: Nitin

Nitin — Tue, 26 Jan 2010 15:37:02 +0000

Infibeam has nailed pricing of Pi at 9999 which is half the cost of kindle after import. Amazon will face very stiff competition. Infibeam Pi has the right Indian pricing and all features i need to read my book so I root for buying local Pi!
Way to go Infibeam.

By: Tarun Dua

Tarun Dua — Tue, 26 Jan 2010 14:43:42 +0000

This is uber cool, they should directly target the education market, an engineering college student already spends more than 20K in 4 years, perhaps they should just bundle a superset of books call it an engineering bundle and make it available at a fixed price of say 15 or 20K. Would require a bit of topic search ( across all books ) and cross referencing features. And it is awesome seeing a device designed in India for Indian ( and hopefully Asia-Pacific )marketplace. And perhaps they should make its OS open source and hackable.

By: Tarun Dua

Tarun Dua — Tue, 26 Jan 2010 14:43:14 +0000

By: arvind

arvind — Tue, 26 Jan 2010 12:50:23 +0000

I am feeling good abt the product been framed & launched from India. Waiting for NoitionInk guys now. Fingers crossed. This market is one to watch, closely.