Borders Opens E-book Store with Multiple E-readers and Formats
Amazon has the Kindle; Barnes & Noble has the Nook. Now Borders also has an e-book store, but instead of tying customers to one device, the bookstore is offering multiple e-book readers.
The new Borders e-book store just went live with over 1.5 million titles, thanks to help from the Kobo catalog of e-books. The company also says that thousands of those titles are available for free. But having an e-book store isn't the unique thing about Borders; it's the open approach to getting content from the store.
Borders has several e-book reader devices for sale, including the Kobo for $150, the Sony Touch for $170, the Sony Pocket eReaders for $150 and the Aluratek Libre for $120 (coming July 20). Even more importantly, Borders is offering its books in a variety of formats, from ePub to PDF. That means user content isn't tied to one device .
In keeping with the recent push towards smartphone e-reader apps, Borders also has ebook-reader apps for iPhone, Android and BlackBerry devices and PC or Mac computers.
