RCA Bundling Content With eBook Reader
By Amy Gilroy -- TWICE, 9/3/2001
INDIANAPOLIS—Thomson Multimedia announced that all new RCA eBook readers sold between Aug. 9 and Sept. 30 will come bundled with $200 worth of free reading content to all newly registered owners.
Consumers who purchase either the RCA REB1100 or the color REB1200 will receive free subscriptions and up to 33 free books from the Gemstar eBook Catalog Service.
Users who register automatically begin receiving a free-90 day subscription to the Gemstar edition of The Wall Street Journal Online and The Washington Post Online, as well as a choice of books. Users must register by Oct. 15 to be eligible.
Among the books available through the promotion are "Cane River" by Lalita Tademy, "Parallel Lies" by Ridley Pearson and "Moving Target" by Elizabeth Lowell. Consumers can also choose from 30 classic titles by authors including Shakespeare, Dickens and Poe.
The REB1100 eBook reader is about the size of a paperback book. It has a built in 33.6K modem so users can plug it into a phone jack to download content without a PC. The unit has 8MB of onboard memory to store about 20 novels and it gets approximately 20 to 40 hours of use on a battery charge. Other features include back-lit screen, adjustable font size, and upgradable memory to 72MB, or 150 books. Suggested retail price for the REB1100 is $229.
The step-up REB1200 is magazine-sized, and has a high-resolution VGA quality color touch screen. It has a faster 56K modem and Ethernet connection and is upgradable to 128MB. It carries a suggested retail price of $699.
