National Book Store to get into eBook business?

Got this from a reliable source that National Book Store (NBS) is planning to get into the ebook business. I was a little surprised at first but considering that NBS is the biggest book retailer in the country, going into the eBook business this early makes good business sense.

Aside from distributing thousands of book titles, NBS also publishes a few titles themselves. They also got an online store thats been running for years.

It’s too early to tell how the eBooks will be distributed but it could either be implemented via an online store or via on-site transfer (within an NBS branch nationwide).

The viability of this business will rely heavily of the adoption rate of tablets and eBook readers in the country. However, if schools (like St. Paul, et al) starts to standardize the use of tablet and eReaders in the classroom, we might be able to see this project thru.

If we can get more local books digitized, then why not?

Abe Olandres

Abe is the founder and Editor-in-Chief of YugaTech with over 20 years of experience in the technology industry. He is one of the pioneers of blogging in the country and considered by many as the Father of Tech Blogging in the Philippines. He is also a technology consultant, a tech columnist with several national publications, resource speaker and mentor/advisor to several start-up companies.

https://www.yugatech.com

26 Comments

XXIX says:

14 years ago

Hopefully, affordable.
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Mike Lachica says:

14 years ago

Nice!!!
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angelo says:

14 years ago

Sounds good. Lower overhead cost, lower book cost.
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ellen says:

14 years ago

Nice move for NBS if ever. Publishers should start converting their print books to e-books too and universities should ask students to submit their thesis in digital files as well so researching in libraries would be way easier.
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John says:

14 years ago

Love the idea. Gotta find the cheapest e-book reader.
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Jojo Agot says:

14 years ago

How would NBS fare in the online book market if Apple and Barnes & Nobles are trailing far behind Amazon? Unless they could offer better deals, NBS’ chances are slim.
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lou says:

14 years ago

good to hear that.. no hassle of bringing super heavy books everyday in school.. hope that the school will provide super discounted prices for the devices like ipad which u can use.. like ateneo for giving dscounts on ipad on atenean students
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NemOry says:

14 years ago

Digitalized na halos lahat sa 2011 oh nice. ,hehe.
Nice plan from NBS but I hope they cannot be cheated, haha, .ebooks has no security dba?na my license for example if you bought it, you have to enter a licensed code,haha,
Kasi what will happen e madaling mag spread ang book especially torrent sites.haha. . .sana wag cla ma babankrupt dahl dito.
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Miguel Paraz says:

14 years ago

Hope this helps local authors to get read abroad – and get paid too!
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marco says:

14 years ago

Too bad digital copies are impossible to resell. But it will a good idea if they will offer a free digital copy for every hard copies. They could include a unique code inside the bundle that you may use for download online. Or better yet, sell digital copies alone at a reasonably lower price! Like upto 50% off. :) otherwise, i won’t be abandoning the old ways. I have no fully fledged ebook reader anyway, i read digital copies on tiny smartphone screens. That sucks.
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