Sharp Launches Galapagos e-book store and e-reader

Sharp has announced that it will be launching a cloud-based media business, called Galapagos, to the Japanese market in December of this year. In addition, the company will be launching a tablet-style e-books reader around the same time.

Galapagos Service:

Galapagos will initially be an e-book bookstore with emphasis on periodicals, but more content will be available over time. At the time of launch the service will have approximately 30,000 books, magazines, and newspapers, and will feature an automated daily delivery service for periodicals, as well as free trials of books. The service will allow users to bookmark items in periodicals or books; and recommend them to others. The service will have their newspaper downloaded automatically every morning.


On a lighter note, naming the service as Galapagos is quite interesting. In Ecuador, there are islands which are called Galapagos Islands. The islands are quite famous for the wide variety of life species they have. Not only this, the islands are full of animal species who although belong to a common ancestor thousands of years ago, but now, have evolved different anatomical traits-- like similar looking birds with long, short, hooked beaks etc—depending on the food that is available to them. The famous biologist Charles Darwin discovered "origin of species" and "survival of fittest", based on his visit to these islands.Thus Galapagos, both represents variety and evolving nature of the service.

Tablet-style e-book reader: 

The device is meant to support the Galapagos service and will be called the Galapagos E-book Reader. The device will have two models: a 10.8-inch model and a 5.5-inch model. Both models will include high-resolution LCD screens, integrated Wi-Fi, and a Web browser.

On launch in December, the Galapagos service and E-reader will only be available in Japan. --------

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