After the adventure of Cybook 1 & 2, a new product and goals for the founders of Bookeen. The priorities: better screen visibility, especially outside, and reduced eye fatigue; better autonomy, to take advantage of the improved reading comfort; and of course, a price below 500€.

In October 2007, Bookeen releases the Cybook Gen3, a few weeks before the first Amazon Kindle.

Bookeen Cybook Gen3

This new Cybook brings lots of changes from the previous models: a smaller format and a significantly lighter weight (174g vs. 1kg for its big brother) make it easy to hold in one hand; the first e-ink screen, for reading as comfortable as on paper, even in full sunlight; battery life which is now counted in weeks instead of hours; and a reading application “Made in Bookeen”, Boo Reader, easy to use and already concerned with providing the best possible reading experience. The Cybook Gen3 reads the Mobipocket format (prc), the dominant format at this time when the epub format was only just appearing on the scene.

The Gen3 is an important success; despite a strong production rate, the orders pile up and there is a waiting list of several weeks for delivery of this new reader.

By early 2008, Bookeen is selling the Cybook Gen3 for 350€/$ in more than 11 countries, and the Bookeen brand is developing internationally.

This small company leaves the apartment where it began and moves into a new address in Paris, and the team of the two founders grows, with the arrival of the first employees.

We saw just recently happy Gen3 owners, at the Paris Book Fair. What about you, did you have one?

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A little riddle…

I weigh 1kg,  offer a touch-screen with a 256 colour display, an internet connection and 4 hours autonomy, who am I?

I am the Cyber book Gen1, better known as the Cybook 1^st generation!

This little riddle is just the beginning. Take a trip with us over the next few weeks back through Cybook history as we celebrate Bookeen’s 10 year anniversary! That’s right, it’s been 10 years already since Bookeen began inventing and imagining digital reading solutions.

Before creating Bookeen in 2003, Laurent Picard and Michaël Dahan participated in the adventure of Cytale, as conceptors of the first European digital book, the Cybook Gen1. In 2001, the first ebook reader, the creation of a catalogue of 1500 french-language ebooks… but this innovation was too far ahead of its time and lacked the qualities of today’s ebook readers.

After this first model and the end of Cytale, Michaël and Laurent recovered the stocks and the name “Cybook” and in an apartment in the 13th district of Paris they founded Bookeen, a company for “book enthusiasts”. It’s during this time that a new, more compact model, the Gen2, is developed, and marketed to professionals like the Chaillot theatre for example…

Tell us, are there any early adopters amongst you who were already Cybooker or Bookeener in the early 2000s?

Cybook Gen1, Gen2, Gen3

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