As e-books overtake print, Samsung sends in Readers Hub

Sales figures from February this year show that e-books have outsold print in all categories. In an attempt to keep up with this trend, Samsung has announced its Readers Hub App for the Galaxy Tab and Galaxy S/SII devices.

The buzz over e-books cannot be ignored as they fast become the number one format in all book categories. In fact, when the Association of American Publishers released its sales figures in February this year, the message was clear – e-books have surpassed print in all trade categories, and this trend was mirrored by other online retailers just last month.

Says Adrian Lee, Mobile Content Lead at Samsung: ‚We always have a pulse on industry trends to ensure we are able to provide users with not only superior products, but also with the content and applications that make for an enhanced user experience. In line with this, the goal behind the development of the Readers Hub App for Samsung Galaxy Tab and Galaxy S/SII, is to provide customers with a universally accessible reading store, specifically built and tailored in recognition of the rise of the digital reader.‚

The Readers Hub App for Samsung Galaxy Tab is a novel application specially designed to provide unsurpassed opportunities for reading, with wireless access to a wealth of bookstores, and it supports ePub and PDF formats. The Hub is stacked with newspapers, magazines and books users can peruse with their finger. Newspapers look like actual newspapers in miniature form: just a click brings the font into a more readable size. Books can be thumbed through with some nice page-turning action.

‚While the concept of e-books and e-readers are still new to South Africa there is certainly a case to be made for e-reading,‚ continues Lee. ‚It’s inexpensive as you save in comparison to an equivalent in the bookstore. In fact, the e-book will pay for itself in no time. It’s also environmentally friendly, and a great tool to bring books to the masses.‚

The Readers Hub comes pre-loaded on the above Samsung Galaxy devices giving users access to over 100 000 international and local titles as well as South Africa’s top newspapers and magazines. Additionally it provides access to 1,700 full content publications from 92 countries in 48 languages. The fast navigation and the rich graphics view are definite facilities for avid e-readers. Also, further advantages are the opportunities for cross-title search by keywords and automatic download of newspapers to be later read offline.

‚Samsung Readers Hub is your one stop for books, magazines and newspapers from South Africa and around the world. Whether you’re travelling on vacation or just commuting to work, carry every single book, magazine and newspaper you want to read ‚ day or night, with the night reading mode. The vibrant screen and familiar paperback size of the Galaxy Tab mirrors a traditional reading experience and we are very excited to be able to offer this to our South African consumers. We are also opening up new opportunities to customers and constantly welcomingly new publishers to ensure a wide and new scope of reading content is made available continuously ‚ further cementing our commitment to providing a platform to foster an innovative atmosphere for mobile content development in Africa,‚ concludes Lee.