THOMSON multimedia To Develop and Market Services and Hardware for Digital Electronic Books
Agreement with Gemstar Opens Door for Affordable E-Book Platform
PARIS, March 14 /PRNewswire/ -- THOMSON multimedia (SICOVAM: 18453) (NYSE: TMS - news), a worldwide leader in digital consumer electronics products through its popular RCA and THOMSON brands, today announced a global initiative with Gemstar International Group Limited (Nasdaq: GMST - news) to enter the digital electronic book business.
``As a company that sells millions of digital consumer electronics devices each year, Thomson believes there is a compelling business to be made in offering affordable electronic books and services. We can bring the entire digital e-book product category within reach of more people. And with our growing services business, we expect to realize revenue every time that content is downloaded into an electronic book,' explained Jim Meyer, Senior Executive Vice President of New Media Services for Thomson.
Thomson and Gemstar today announced a wide-ranging agreement that is expected to result in popularly-priced electronic books later this year. The companies, along with Gemstar subsidiaries NuvoMedia Inc. and Softbook Press, have begun to develop new versions of the popular Rocket eBook© and Softbook Readers©. These next generation e-books will offer significant improvements in size, weight, and functionality over the current models. These devices will have the capability to access web-based electronic bookstores to purchase or store content. Thomson and Gemstar have also agreed to work together to promote the digital electronic book category, beginning with an extensive awareness campaign later this year.
The combined Thomson and Gemstar effort is expected to lower suggested retail prices for e-book hardware, to improve availability through broader distribution of e-book readers, and to eventually simplify the process of receiving content through new data distribution techniques.
Thomson and Gemstar will jointly pursue opportunities to expand the existing e-book service offerings, with plans to publish electronic magazines, full-color catalogs, reference books, textbooks for all forms of education, and technical publications for business. The e-book also has the capability to download optional software that can perform personal-digital-assistant (``PDA') functionality, such as storing and retrieving and personal information, appointment calendars, and phone directories.
``The growth of the e-book category has been slowed by high hardware prices and dearth of titles. It's a classic 'chicken and egg' problem. But now, working with Gemstar, we hope to reach more consumers with an RCA-branded, affordable electronic book product line that should lead to more, and better, e-book publishing,' Meyer said.
Already, e-book readers can download new titles from Internet websites or online bookstores. Using the built-in high-speed modem or connections to the PC, a full-length novel can be downloaded in about three minutes or less. Building on their cooperative effort to offer no-fee, on-screen electronic program guides to more than 1.5 million TV viewers, Gemstar and Thomson will further improve the ease and speed of downloading other information into electronic books.
Digital electronic books do have several advantages over traditional paper books. A single device can store multiple titles, making it ideal for traveling. Also convenient is the ability to access the content anywhere in the world -- allowing a foreign traveler to access the latest books and hometown news ``hassle-free.' For easy-reading, the backlighting intensity and font-size can be enlarged by one-touch of a button to enhance readability. Other convenience features include interactive dictionaries, which allow the user to point to a word and see its definition, bookmarking, search-by-words and note-taking. Like all of the new generation Internet appliances, the electronic book can offer ``instant on' access, intuitive ease-of-use, portability, and expandability -- all at an affordable price.
About THOMSON multimedia
The world's fourth largest producer of consumer electronics with sales of Euro 6.7 billion ($6.4 billion US) in 1999 and 55,000 salaried employees in more than 30 countries, THOMSON multimedia has four principal activities: Displays and Components, Consumer Products, New Media Services, and Patents and Licensing. The Group engineers, manufacturers, and markets display components and consumer products such as televisions, VCRs, camcorders, digital decoders, DVD players, audio and communications products, as well as professional video equipment. THOMSON multimedia is listed on the Paris stock exchange (SICOVAM : 18453) and on the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE: TMS - news). THOMSON multimedia is the parent company of the U.S.-based Thomson Consumer Electronics, Inc. Visit THOMSON multimedia on the Web: thomson-multimedia.com .
Except for historical information contained here, the matters discussed in this news release contain forward-looking statements which involve risks and uncertainties, including the timely availability and acceptance of new products, the impact of competitive products and pricing, the management of growth, and other risks detailed from time to time in the two companies' SEC reports.
SOURCE: THOMSON multimedia |
