The Rocket eBook is an early commercial handheld

e-reader An e-reader, also called an e reader or e device, is a Mobile computing, mobile electronic device that is designed primarily for the purpose of reading digital e-books and Periodical literature, periodicals. Any device that can display text on ...

that was produced by NuvoMedia in late 1998; it uses a

LCD A liquid-crystal display (LCD) is a flat-panel display or other electronically modulated optical device that uses the light-modulating properties of liquid crystals combined with polarizers to display information. Liquid crystals do not em ...

screen and can store up to ten

e-books An ebook (short for electronic book), also spelled as e-book or eBook, is a book publication made available in electronic form, consisting of text, images, or both, readable on the flat-panel display of computers or other electronic devices. A ...

E-books An ebook (short for electronic book), also spelled as e-book or eBook, is a book publication made available in electronic form, consisting of text, images, or both, readable on the flat-panel display of computers or other electronic devices. A ...

are loaded on the device by connecting it to a computer, and the device has two page turn buttons. Rocket-compatible e-books were sold online at

Barnes & Noble Barnes & Noble Booksellers is an American bookseller with the largest number of retail outlets in the United States. The company operates approximately 600 retail stores across the United States. Barnes & Noble operates mainly through its B ...

and Powell's Bookstore. It had a retail price of $499. The Rocket eBook was manufactured by NuvoMedia until 2000, when it was purchased by Gemstar-TV Guide International for $187 million.Hossein Bidgoli.
The Internet Encyclopedia
'. John Wiley and Sons, 2004. p. 790. After purchasing NuvoMedia and merging it with SoftBook, Gemstar released an e-reader called the RCA eBook Reader.

NuvoMedia

On April 15, 1997,

Martin Eberhard Martin Forest Eberhard (; born 1960) is an American engineer and entrepreneur who co-founded Tesla, Inc. (then Tesla Motors) with Marc Tarpenning in July 2003, where Eberhard was its original CEO serving until late 2007. In 2015, he was induct ...

and Marc Tarpenning founded NuvoMedia to make a product that could benefit from improving battery size and settled on designing an electronic book reader; the resulting Rocket eBook e-reader sold 20,000 units in 1999.

References

External links

"The Tale of Rocketbook – The very first e-reader"
Good E-Reader, 2018 {{Ebooks Products introduced in 1998 Computer-related introductions in 1998 Products and services discontinued in 2000 Dedicated ebook devices Electronic paper technology Electronic publishing