France Telecom E-Reader Includes Subscriptions

Mac Slocum
September 17, 2008 | Permalink | Comments (0) | Listen

France Telecom's Read & Go trial service bundles e-reader hardware with a subscription to mobile content. From BusinessWeek:

The trial of the prototype will wrap up this month, and by 2009, France Telecom aims to start distributing the Read & Go in conjunction with a subscription-based news service of the same name. For a monthly charge similar to a mobile service plan, customers will receive an over-the-air stream of aggregated content from a wide assortment of information sources. Alongside the articles will be ads that help defray the cost of the service.

Read & Go is being positioned as a "mobile newspaper kiosk." Amazon's Kindle offers similar access to newspapers, magazines and blogs, but subscription fees are charged on a title-by-title basis. The Kindle is not currently sold internationally and Read & Go will only be available in France, so direct competition between the devices/services won't occur in the near term.

Earlier this year, Dutch newspaper NRC Handelsblad partnered with iRex Technologies to sell digital newspaper subscriptions bundled with iRex's iLiad e-reader (pdf). iRex also manufactures the Read & Go device.

Related Stories:

• Read & Go press release
• New York Times: "Reading Device Enlisted to Help French Papers"
• What Does Esquire's E Ink Cover Mean for Print Publishing?
• UK Reaction to Sony Reader Release
• Open Question: All-in-One Devices or Single Use E-Readers?