Oprah likes her Rocket eBook and it will help Gemstar and RCA

In what appears to be a crucial event in the take-up of the about-to-be-released RCA ebook devices (Friday after Thanksgiving), Oprah will be showing and giving away hundreds of REB 1100s to her studio audience. Each year Oprah's TV show features an episode in which (some may say, indulgently) she talks about the favorite things she has found over the previous year. It has been a feature on her show the past few years.

According to the original Starnews.com article, "Winfrey is familiar with one of the RCA product's forerunners, the Rocket eBook.... Winfrey and representatives of Gemstar spoke several times about her interest in the [new] device, and a deal was quickly sealed: Thomson would provide 350 readers, which will sell for $299, free of charge."

The day after Thanksgiving is widely regarded as biggest shopping day of the year and, with the eBookman release delayed (from this originally planned date of Thanksgiving), Gemstar and RCA could not be in a better position to maximise their chances of success.

According to the influential Oprah, "It's the day I've been waiting for all year! I start on January 1st... search the globe... it's my quest, my mission. Every year I push myself to find the perfect gifts -- and today, I reveal everything!" The show will be aired this Friday, November 11.

The news of the coup is extraordinarily fortuitous for Gemstar and RCA who have not had a huge amount of support from the existing ebook industry. Their goal is not really to reach the existing ebook enthusiasts, but to turn the use of ebooks and ebook devices into a mainstream thing to do.

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