Tolino

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Tolino is a brand name of e-readers and tablets marketed by leading booksellers in Germany, Austria, and Switzerland in cooperation with Deutsche Telekom.[1] Since 2014, the e-reader has also been available in Belgium,[2] Netherlands,[3] and Italy.[4]

The Tolino Alliance[edit]

History[edit]

The German Bookstores Club Bertelsmann, Hugendubel, Thalia, and Weltbild founded, along with Deutsche Telekom, the Tolino-Allianz (Tolino Alliance). Deutsche Telekom functions as the Alliance's "Techology partner". It is responsible for the entire software and hardware element of the platform, as well as the marketing of Tolino's library of digital e-books. Despite the alliance, the book stores remain in competition with one-another. The motivation for the founding of the Tolino Alliance was to provide an e-reading solution for German e-book readers, and to prevent the migration of German users to international competitors (most notably Amazon's Kindle products). However, the closed nature of Amazon's ecosystem (because of its proprietary AZW e-book format) makes it difficult to return customers to the German booktrade.

The first negotiations between the four German book stores took place in the Spring of 2012. And in the Summer of 2012, the Tolino Alliance was formed.

The Tolino brand was constructed during March 2013, with the introduction of the brand to the public with Tolino's first e-book reader, the Tolino Shine. Come November 2013, the Tolino Shine was complemented by two tablets: Tolino Tab 7", and Tolino Tab 8.9".

In January 2014, the co-founding member of the group, Weltbild, filed for bankruptcy, and was dissolved into Paragon partners.[5] Shortly before March 2014, Deutsche Telekom introduced its own e-book shop, "PagePlace".[6][7]

Tolino's second and improved e-reader, Tolino Vision, was introduced to the market in April 2014. In October 2014, during the Frankfurt Bookfair, the bookwholesaler Libri announced that it would become part of the Tolino Alliance. Following this, more than 1,000 independent bookstores removed the Tolino products from their shelves, and connected their online shops with the Tolino Cloud.[8] The new partner's goal was to become a comprehensive alternative for digital reading for the entire German bookmarket.

Likewise, in the Autumn of 2014, the Belgium producer Standaard Boekhandel joined the Tolino Alliance. The Italian bookstore IBS Italy became yet another partner. IBS offered its books through ibs.it and libraccio.it.[9]

A new and improved Tolino Vision 2 was introduced in November 2014. It featured a water-resistant shell and "tap2flip". The Tolino Tab 8" tablet complemented the introduction of the e-reader.

In September 2015, it was announced that bookstores Mayersche and Osiander were new partners of the Tolino Alliance.[10]

The Tolino Alliance's prominence was increased with the induction of netherlandic bookstore Libris.nl (also blz.nl) to the group.

During the Frankfurt book festival in October 2015, Tolino introduced two new e-readers. Immediately thereafter, the two were made available for purchase. The Tolino Vision 3 HD became the new model in Tolino-Vision line, and is aimed at the high-end market. While the Tolino Shine 2 HD is the lower-end and cheaper model, that serves as an improved version of the previous Tolino Shine.[11]

In November 2015, another Italian online shop was introduced by the Italian Tolino-Partners IBS. Ever since, indiE-Book.it has marketed Tolino products in Italy.

As previously announced through The Direct Group Bertelsmann, the founding member of the firm Club Bertelsmann ("derClub.de") ceased operation at the end of 2015.[12][13]

Awards[edit]

In 2015, the Tolino brand was voted, yet again, by the readers of lesen.net as the e-reader provider of the year.[14] Tolino was followed by Amazon's Kindle at 45% with its product line (35%). In the previous two years, Tolino secured first place with 34% in 2013, and 37% in 2014.[15][16]

Tolino was chosen as e-reader brand of the year by allesE-Book.de in 2015. Tolino clearly won, garnering 44.3% of votes, Kobo 27.7%, and Amazon 17.8%. In the previous year's survey, Tolino secured fourth place, capturing only 17.7% of voters.[17]

The Tolino Brand[edit]

The Tolino Alliance distinguishes itself through its close relationship with customers, by offering on-site advice at its respective bookstores, rather than the exclusively digital service offered by Amazon. Additionally, in contrast to Amazon, open e-book formats are supported by all Tolino devices. Tolino devices accept standard formats such as PDF, ePub and TXT; all with or without copy protection.

The Tolino logo
The Tolino logo

The Tolino logo comprises a blue butterfly and the word "tolino" on a white background. The butterfly is a ubiqitious motif across Tolino's website and Tolino products. Another well-known Tolino symbol is the "smiley". The smiley is commonly depicted in Tolino marketing material while the device is on stand-by. However, in reality, on the e-reader itself, a separate image, the "sleeping smiley" is used.

Tolino Products and Services[edit]

Tolino offers its users an open ecosystem (via its products compatibility with ePub, PDF, and TXT formats).

Tolino's product line was expanded in 2013 with the Tolino tablets. The tablets were equipped with a special application that allows ebooks to be read on the tablets.

In addition to hardware, Tolino provides free software to the users of the ecosystem.

The Tolino cloud is the central component of the Tolino ecosystem. It functions as a central storage space for ebooks which may be accessed and read through the Tolino-Webreader. The Webreader allows ebooks to be read in the web-browser - without necessitating the installation of an application, or a physical ebook-reader.

The bookstores of the alliance have published free applications for Android and Apple devices that facilitate the reading of ebooks stored on the Tolino cloud. The core-application has been developed by Deutsche Telekom, however, it has been rebranded for each respective bookstore. Tolino applications may be recognized within app stores by the presence of the Tolino logo.

A special service provided by the Tolino Alliance is a "combined-library". The service allows the library of each individual bookstore to be viewed in one place.

Tolino e-readers[edit]

Tolino e-readers are devices featuring a 15.2 cm (6.0") e-ink display. They support ePub, PDF and TXT file formats. To date, the following variants exist:

  • Tolino Shine (2013)
  • Tolino Vision (2014)
  • Tolino Vision 2 (2014)
  • Tolino Vision 3 HD (2015)
  • Tolino Shine 2 HD (2015)

Tolino Tablets[edit]

Tolino tablets complement the product range of the Tolino Alliance. The Tolino Tab 7" and Tolino Tab 8.9" were introduced in November 2013. Both use the Android 4.2.2 operating system and an ARM Processor (Quad Core Rockship 3188 at 1.6 GHz). 16 GB of storage is available to the operating system and applications. The storage space may be expanded up until 64 GB with a microSD card. The Tolino tablets are not suited to running navigation applications as the devices' built-in GPS receivers are too weak.

In October 2014 the new Tolino Tab 8" was introduced and made available.

The Tolino Cloud[edit]

The Tolino Cloud is the central storage space for ebooks within the Tolino System. German, Austrian, and Swiss customers are provided with 25 GB of storage space to store their ebooks. While customers from Belgium, Italy, and the Netherlands only receive 5 GB. The use of the Tolino cloud necessitates a current account with a bookstore of the Tolino Alliance. The Tolino cloud can be accessed by a maximum of 5 devices. Users are provided with the option to synchronise their devices to the Tolino cloud. Through this service, saved reading meta-data such as the progress through a book are made available across devices. When an ebook is purchased from a participating bookstore, the ebook is automatically made available in the cloud. For ebook purchases from non-participating retailers, ebooks must be uploaded manually. This can only be done provided they are available in a compatible format (PDF or ePub). Administration of the Cloud can be performed through the Tolino-Webreader, Tolino e-readers, and Tolino apps.

Webreader[edit]

The Tolino alliance provides a webreader that allows ebooks to be read and administrated in the browser.

The Tolino Webreader supports the EPUB3 format and is compatible with most web-browsers.

Explanatory Videos[edit]

Beginning in December 2015, Tolino began to offer Erklärvideos (explanatory videos) that explain the basic operation of the e-book readers for new users, e.g.: the purchasing of ebooks, and Adobe copyprotection.

References[edit]

  1. ^ "So führen die Tolino-Partner die neue Marke ein" (in German). Retrieved 2014-03-16. 
  2. ^ "Tolino-Shop bei Standaard Boekhandel" (in German). Retrieved 2014-12-07. 
  3. ^ "Tolino-Shop bei Libris" (in German). Retrieved 2014-12-07. 
  4. ^ "Tolino-Shop bei IBS" (in German). Retrieved 2014-12-07. 
  5. ^ "Weltbild steht vor dem Aus" (in German). Retrieved 2014-03-16. 
  6. ^ "Münchner Finanzinvestor übernimmt Weltbild" (in German), Welt Online, 2014-05-11, http://www.welt.de/wirtschaft/article127887356/Muenchner-Finanzinvestor-uebernimmt-Weltbild.html. Retrieved 2016-02-09 
  7. ^ "Telekom macht den PagePlace dicht" (in German). Retrieved 2014-03-16. 
  8. ^ "Tolino für den ganzen Buchhandel" (in German). Retrieved 2014-10-26. 
  9. ^ "Tolino für den ganzen Buchhandel" (in German). Retrieved 2015-02-02. 
  10. ^ http://www.ebookreader-zubehoer.de/2015/mayersche-und-osiander-werden-tolino-partner-2-neue-tolino-ebook-readerlesegeraete-kommen/
  11. ^ "Tolino Vision 3HD, Shine 2HD: Telekom “bestätigt” zwei neue eBook Reader » lesen.net". www.lesen.net (in German). Retrieved 2016-02-09. 
  12. ^ "Bis Ende 2015 Bertelsmann schließt seinen Buchclub" (in German), Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, 2014-06-17, ISSN 0174-4909, http://www.faz.net/aktuell/wirtschaft/unternehmen/bertelsmann-schliesst-seinen-buchclub-12996222.html. Retrieved 2016-02-09 
  13. ^ "Tolino-Allianz verliert Bertelsmann Buchclub als Partner" (in German). Retrieved 2015-09-01. 
  14. ^ "Tolino-Allianz ist E-Reading-Anbieter des Jahres 2015 » lesen.net". www.lesen.net (in German). Retrieved 2016-02-09. 
  15. ^ "Tolino-Allianz ist Hersteller des Jahres 2013 » lesen.net". www.lesen.net (in German). Retrieved 2016-02-09. 
  16. ^ "Tolino-Allianz ist Hersteller des Jahres 2014 » lesen.net". www.lesen.net (in German). Retrieved 2016-02-09. 
  17. ^ "Hersteller des Jahres" (in German). Retrieved 2016-02-09. 
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