Borders Books Going Digital with Elonex eBook, at Least in UK

No one will argue with the fact that Amazon has been on to something with its Kindle family, so it doesn’t surprise us to hear that Borders Books is playing copycat.

UK Company Elonex has partnered with Borders in the UK to launch a 6-inch eBook Reader. But the new device sure doesn’t get points for originality: it is called the eBook and to get books on the device you have to go to the Borders eBook Download Store on your PC and then sync it with the device.

On the spec front, it uses eInk technology and has 512MB of on board memory (enough for approximately 1,000 eBooks). The 4GB SD card available in the accessory pack can hold 8,000 titles. Brits can pick up the eBook for £189 ($311) which includes an additional 100 free ebooks.

Though the eBook is available only from Borders UK stores now, Elonex told us that the possibility of bringing it to the U.S. hasn’t been ruled out and that initial sales show that it is doing better than expected. Borders in the U.S. currently carries Sony’s eReader but the Sony isn’t exclusively available at the book retailer.