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Vestal launches 'LeAF' range of eReaders in India

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Announcement Corporate

To offer a range of eReaders, eDiaries and Solutions

Vestal Enterprises Pvt Ltd, a 100% subsidiary of Vestal Corporation, Singapore, today announced its entry into the Indian e-reading market with the launch of LeAF, a range of eReaders, E-Diaries and Solutions. Under the new brand “LeAF”, the company will offer state-of-the art LeAF eReaders, a new age technology that would redefine reading experience for book lovers. It is advanced, user friendly and more importantly customizable to suit the requirements of various audiences across industries & individuals. Vestal is also launching LeAF eDiary, an ultra portable pen scanner which would enable users to go mobile and green!

 

LeAF ushers a new era in reading with a range of state-of-the-art e-ink and TFT e-readers. Under the eReader category, Vestal offers various products - LeAF Basic, LeAF Mega, LeAF Galore, LeAF Touch, LeAF Touch pro, LeAF Access and LeAF Android tablets. These eReaders come with various features designed to suit everyone’s needs and budgets. The LeAF are available in two sizes 6"or 9", with E-Ink, Color or grey models, with or without touch screen, QWERTY Keyboard, 3G and WIFI technology. The device supports 18 Indian languages with customized language menu providing a truly Indian experience to the readers. The price range of LeAF eReaders starts from Rs 8,999.

LeAF’s eDiary consists of a paper notebook, a digital pen and a small receiving unit including flash memory. The device captures handwritten notes on plain paper, stores the notes to memory and uploads them to the PC. The document can be converted in to typed text with search, drawing and editing options in a PC. This allows accurate handwriting conversion and real time drawing interaction with PCs and Notebooks. 

Announcing the launch of Vestal’s LeAF brand in India, Mr. Ganesh Narayanan, CEO, Vestal Corporation, Singapore, said “We have developed these devices & applications to suit Indian consumers need, keeping in mind avid readers, professionals like lawyers, doctors, institution, professors etc.., who deal with large amount of content and have to process it on the go for their day-to-day work. We intend to reach our B-B customers via direct sales and use the offline and online retail channels to reach to the B-C segment.”

Vestal LeAF eReaders are designed by Vestal Corporation Singapore specifically for Indian market, “Our customized application development centre in Chennai develops various applications not just for hobby readers, but to cater to the specific requirements for various segments like educational institutions, professionals, corporate and publishing industry. We are working towards customizing our LeAF devices for catering to even physically challenged and differently abled people. We are looking forward to acquire a market share of 20% in B2B & 10% in B2C in the E-Reader segment by end of 2011.”He added.

India is world’s largest and most stable education segment, with increasing e-content and e-learning methodologies Vestal’s LeAF eDiaries and eReaders would be highly suitable for strengthening the Indian education system.

“India is still a new market for eReaders, however it has a potential of at least 50,000 e-Readers a year. To drive the market it’s important to educate the customers on the advantages of digital reading viz-a-viz physical books. We also see an initial stigma with the concept of buying e-books, as paying for content is still a naïve concept in India. Hence we foresee that the B2C segment though is much bigger, will grow slower than B2B segment where we can offer available content as customized applications for immediate use, said, Mr. Seshadri Mukundan, CEO, Vestal Enterprises Pvt Ltd. Once the consumer experiences the technology and enjoys the mobility it offers; e-readers would definitely bring the next popular technology boom in India, after mobiles phones. He added.

LeAF products will be available at all the major retail book stores like Landmark and Odyssey. To tap the online customers the company is also selling its products via online portals like hindushopping.com, indiaplaza.in, sifymall.com, youshop.in, shopping.thinkdigit.com, indiaplaza.in/abpshop, indiaplaza.in/businessworld.

 

 

 

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First Published: Dec 13 2010 | 12:23 PM IST

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