By Allen Tsai | Fri Apr 03, 2009 8:19 pm |
Verizon Wireless is looking at entering the electronic-book market, possibly focusing on areas Amazon's Kindle neglects, such as college textbooks.
The Basking Ridge, N.J.-based company said five companies have approached it about wireless connections for e-readers."You're going to see a lot of e-readers out there," said Tony Lewis, who heads an initiative within Verizon. "The interest level is tremendous." Amazon launched the second version of its Kindle e-book reader a month ago and uses Sprint's wireless network to offer wireless access to a store with 100,000 books. The Kindle's main competition has been Sony's Reader -- a handheld that has a similar screen meant to imitate the look of paper. But unlike the Amazon handheld, the Reader lacks wireless access so books have to be loaded by connecting it to a computer. AT&T, the second largest wireless carrier after Verizon Wireless, has also been talking to e-reader manufacturers. Since AT&T's GSM network is more similar to ones used overseas, it could support international e-book readers. The Kindle can download books only in the U.S. Just like Verizon Wireless, AT&T is looking for ways to expand the uses of its wireless network beyond mobile phones to generate additional revenue. Verizon and AT&T have also announced plans to sell netbooks -- smaller scaled-down versions of laptops that typically sell for less than $500.
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