Telecoms companies lead e-reader subscriptions market

Dan Rogers - 18 May 2010

The telecoms industry could lead the market for e-reader and media subscription packages, says European display firm Liquavista.

The Netherlands-based company is in contact with firms in the telecoms industry, discussing commercialisation strategies for e-readers. One business model with strong potential is the bundling of magazine or newspaper subscriptions with a subsidised e-reader - an area already being investigated by the Hearst-financed company Skiff.

Liquavista provides electrowetting technology - a display format purportedly offering greater optical performance than LCDs - suitable for a range of consumer electronics products, the first of which will be e-readers.

However, telecoms providers are well equipped to apply existing subscription models - such as those used to sell digital television channels and mobile phone contracts - to host e-reader subscriptions. Companies in this market are in contact with Liquavista and could be the first to use its mass-manufactured displays, once its facility goes online in 2011.

Telecoms

Guy Demuynck, CEO of Liquavista, explains: 'We are in discussions with people from this area - telecoms and mobile providers. They are thinking about subscription models.

'E-readers are offered as part of a package and providers already have deals on a selection of content. Telecom companies could do the same, and make these deals across many subscription products.'

Despite commercial successes such as the Kindle, e-readers - as a new class of consumer electronic device - are still struggling to find their feet. But the telecoms industry has and will continue to play a key role in their adoption, along with other multimedia digital content devices like the iPad and smartphones.

In 2008 France Télécom galvanised French newspaper dailies and titles, including Le Monde Interactif, Le Figaro and Les Échos, to test the market for e-readers. In a project called 'Read & Go' the telecoms provider gave Iliad e-readers to over 100 customers, who used the device to wirelessly download and read the daily digital editions and gauge how much participants would pay for the service.

And Telecom Italia was courted by Polymer Vision to commercialise its handheld e-reader communication device.

At WAN-IFRA's Second E-Reading Conference in Paris in October 2009, newspaper and magazine publishers were advised to create business models for e-reading platforms or be prepared to sit and wait for telecoms providers to take the initiative.

Advertising

Liquavista is targeting the telecoms industry as the area where its full-colour displays can make an impact once manufacturing is underway next year.

Demuynck adds: 'The next step for e-readers will be magazines and newspapers. As these are driven by advertising, developers want full-colour displays and video capability.

Tablet computers, a technology area likely to become quickly populated by new devices capitalising on Apple's iPad marketing, also mean the cost of standard e-readers will need to be reduced in order to make them successful.

Subscriptions will be a means of doing that, says Demuynck.

'The business model from the telecoms world can be easily applied: the hardware will be subsidised, with a regular subscription being bought by the customer,' he remarks.

Liquavista has announced plans to establish manufacturing in Asia, and will transfer its technology to Asia by the end of 2010, beginning mass-production in Q2 2011. The company has already partnered with consumable materials providers for the manufacturing process, silicon producers and many other elements of the supply chain.

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