The last of couple days in the Ebook world has been all about Amazon vs. Barnes & Noble for the Ebook Reader title. As anyone who cares at all about such topics knows, B&N, the largest brick and mortar bookseller in the US just announced the Nook, an Ebook Reader designed to go head to head with the Kindle, the flagship reader produced by Amazon, the largest online bookseller in the world.

A battle of ink-drenched titans, to be sure. The storied halls of academia will shake for it.

Discussing my views on that struggle (in short, I think the Nook will take a very major piece out of the Kindle’s market share, and we will see a much improved Kindle 3 very very soon due to that fact), my radical librarian friend asked me a very interesting question.

“What about Borders?”

Borders is the second largest brick and mortar bookseller in the US, with an already established presence internationally (unlike B&N) and experienced in selling electronics as well as books. It seems like they would be a natural contestant in the Ebook game….but not a peep from them it seems.

So, what about Borders? What are they doing, and what should they do as Amazon and Barnes and Noble seem to be intent on splitting the pie between themselves?

When looking at Borders situation, we have to remember it is somewhat schizophrenic. Originally, Borders expanded into the UK quite successfully but in 2007, due to serious cashflow problems, Borders Group (the parent company of Borders Bookshops as well as Waldenbooks and Books Etc) sold off Borders UK, which is now run separately from Borders US, though the parent company still owns some stake in the UK operation. Borders Group still runs Borders stores throughout Asia, and their most successful single store worldwide is in Singapore.

In the UK, Borders has aligned with Elonex to create a branded Ebook Reader which debuted last summer and is sold exclusively through Borders UK for 169 Pounds (about 300 dollars), Borders UK also has a sizable Ebook store. Both the books and the Reader, however, are for sale in the UK only.

In the US, Borders is using a different strategy. They offer Sony Readers for sale on their website in the US, but do not offer Ebooks that I can find in their own online store. It is clear they figure that anyone buying a Sony Reader from them will use the Sony Ebook store and not bother them as there is no money in Ebooks anyway. That viewpoint is so last year.

Such a confused, conflicted, tentative and self-defeating Ebook strategy is obviously doomed from the start, and many would say that kind of mismanagement is why Borders has been trying to find someone to buy the failing company for months with no takers.

I feel that however they found themselves in this situation, Borders is missing out on a golden opportunity. If the various Borders subsidiaries Borders US (which also handles Asia) and Borders UK can work together and find a new path in terms of Ebooks, they already have considerable advantages over Amazon and Barnes & Noble.

First of all, the two sides of Borders must work together to make proper use of their assets. Whatever deal Borders US has with Sony has to be dropped, or at least radically changed. The same goes for Borders UK’s connection to Elonex. The Elonex readers looks very nice, but it is very little competition for the Kindle or Nook. I would suggest discontinuing the Borders branded Elonex reader, or drop it’s price radically (halving it if possible) and offering it for sale in all Borders stores as it’s budget Ebook reader.

Next, Borders US has to create an online Ebook store, as quickly as possible. They really can’t move forward until they increase their Ebook presence. Of course Borders has serious capital problems, but you have to spend money to make money in this kind of situation and perhaps an aggressive Ebook plan could bring in some investors or new buyers. They could possibly buy an independent Ebook store (there are lots out there) or work out some way to work with the Borders UK store. Either way, they need to do something and fast.

That still leaves Borders without a serious Reader contender to stand up against the Kindle and the Nook. The Elonex just isn’t going to do it. I suggest that at this point they don’t have the time or the money to develop a device of their own, as it would need to be somewhat innovative and different then either the Kindle or the Nook to make up for coming to the party late.

Therefore I suggest Borders should purchase the rights to a piece of orphaned technology that had a number of people excited before the developers ran out of money, and would be radically different  from the other Ebook Readers on the market….The Readius.

The Readius makes use of a flexible screen to create a small, unusual, innovative Reader that actually had prototypes created and passed around at various demos and trade shows to positive reviews before Polymer Vision went bankrupt several months back.  I am sure their creditors would be very happy for someone to buy their remaining intellectual capital.

Billed as the first Pocket Ebook Reader the Readius runs WinCE on an ARM11 chip and has a 5 inch flexible screen, 3G, USB and Bluetooth connectivity and a MicroSD slot. Folded it would be the only major Ebook Reader that is truly able to fit in a pocket or a small handbag comfortably. It would also be clearly different from either the Kindle or the Nook.

So, with a decent Ebook store behind it and already existing channels in Europe and Asia, the Borders Readius could beat the Nook overseas and make rapid inroads internationally against Amazon, since the online giant is already running into troubles with it’s international Kindle roll out. In addition, both the small size of the Readius and the novelty of the flexible screen would do well in the US. Price it at $250 or better yet at $200 while offering their “Budget” Elonex reader for $150 or less, maybe with deep educational discounts and Borders may just have a way to use Ebooks to shoulder their way out of economic trouble and back into the game.

So, THAT is what I feel the answer to “What about Borders?” is…the Borders Readius. An innovative, distinctive Ebook Reader they can likely buy on the cheap and have out fast as it was already on the verge of production when Polymer Vision closed it’s doors. At the time, no one had enough faith or vision concerning Ebooks to throw the company one more lifeline, no matter how promising the Readius was…but times have changed.

The Readius and a new Ebook store….think about it Borders, and call me. We’ll do lunch.

Zealot (469 Posts) - Website | Twitter | Facebook

By day a department manager and writer for a major network device vendor...by night Zealot stalks the mean magnetic streets, striking fear into the hearts of bandwidth abusers and theme park mascots. Zealot has been involved with mobile devices for more than a decade now, starting off with dumb phones, moving to PDAs and then to smartphones, notebooks and netbooks with the odd PMP thrown in. Most of his mobile time currently is spent on a Treo Pro, Zune HD, Thinkpad T61, Gigabyte M912M or a Hackintoshed Compaq Mini 704. He proudly groks the Geek community and considers himself a Neo Maxi Zune Dweebie (thanks Will Wheaton!).