Tolino eReader

Tolino is a prominent brand of e-readers and tablets specifically designed for the European market, particularly within German-speaking regions. Launched in March 2013, the brand was created by the Tolino Alliance, a cooperative effort between leading German booksellers Thalia, Weltbild, and Hugendubel, in partnership with Deutsche Telekom as the initial technology provider. The brand was established as a strategic 'open system' alternative to Amazon’s Kindle, allowing users to purchase e-books from various independent retailers rather than being locked into a single ecosystem.

In early 2017, the technological leadership of the alliance shifted when Rakuten Kobo, a Canadian-based subsidiary of the Japanese conglomerate Rakuten, acquired the Tolino technology platform from Deutsche Telekom. Since this transition, Tolino hardware has become closely aligned with Kobo’s product lineup, often sharing identical physical designs and internal components while retaining the Tolino-specific software and branding for its core European audience.

While the brand originated in Germany and is historically marketed as 'eReading made in Germany,' the physical manufacturing of the devices takes place in East Asia. Most contemporary Tolino models are manufactured in China, though some components and previous generations have been assembled in Taiwan through Various Original Design Manufacturers (ODMs) like Netronix.