Australian retailer Big W has launched its very own electronic bookstore, with 300,000 titles already on offer, joining JB Hi-Fi in the local ebook market.
The chain store was already in the market of selling physical books, along with everything else from gardening to bedding wares, as well as smartphones, tablets and ereaders including Amazon, Apple, Samsung and Sony devices.
But the company also said that the move was to create home-grown competition for the "likes of iTunes and Amazon".
Categories for Big W eBooks include crime, kids books, science fiction, biographies, education, cooking and food, reference, self-help, home and garden, as well as our favourite, "hot Aussie romance". There are also sections for books under $5 and Australian authors.
Electronic book wars
Amazon has already eaten up a big share of the ebook market with their growing range of Kindle ereaders, tablets and locked-in model, as has Apple with iBooks.
Of course, the biggest competitor would be local JB Hi-Fi with its Now Books service, which launched earlier this year.
Big W's ebooks are in ePub or PDF format and are protected by Adobe's DRM as well, But there are a range of apps you can use to access Big W's ebooks, on almost any device whether that be tablets, smartphones or computers, except for the Kindles that don't offer app downloads.
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