Borders, Sony Launch Co-branded e-Book Store

by Calvin Reid -- Publishers Weekly, 12/20/2007 2:32:00 PM

Borders has joined with Sony to launch a co-branded online store offering e-book titles for Sony’s Reader Digital Book device. The new Borders/Sony online eBook store will offer access to the 25,000 titles available for the device that are generally sold through the Sony eBook Store.

Borders spokesperson Mary Davis said that customers who purchase a Reader Digital Book device at a Borders’s store will be given a promotion code and a copy of customized eBook Library software that will allow the consumer to access the new co-branded online store. A consumer must have the customized software in order to access the new site. Borders shoppers who are also T-Mobile customers can access the co-branded site wirelessly while in a Borders store and download the eBook Library software. The launch of the new eBook store follows on the heels of Borders’s expanded agreement with Sony to sell the Sony Reader device in virtually every Borders’s superstore around the country.

Sony is also running a promotion for the Sony Reader and consumers who purchase the device before January 15, 2008 will receive a $50 credit, good for purchasing e-books from the co-branded store. The offer also includes 100 free e-book classics.

Borders Group v-p of e-business Kevin Ertell said that since the devices began being stocked in all Borders stores, “we are seeing sales increase chain-wide.” With the addition of the new co-branded store, Ertell said, “we are now meeting our customers’ needs fully, from offering the device to a vast array of titles. Borders is embracing this technology which we firmly believe will emerge over time as important to our business.”