The world’s largest book distributor is releasing a new e-book platform called ‘Blio’ in January.

According to an article in The Independent, Barker & Taylor – who distribute 1 million books a year – has committed to making 180,000 titles available via the platform.

Developed in partnership with technologic futurist Ray Kurzweil, CEO of Kurzweil Technologies, Blio is expected to be the next big thing in the e-reader industry.

According to Technorati.com blogger, Mike Shatzkin, Blio even has the potential to make the heads at Amazon, Google and Apple “scratch their heads”.

He wrote: “We in the book business will get to know it as a proprietary ebook platform that has capabilities nothing presented previously can match.

“Blio is a software client that can work on ‘any device with an operating system’, which means computers and iPhones, but not Kindles.

“Based only on the demo we saw from Baker & Taylor Senior VP Linda Gagnon last week, the presentation is the best I’ve ever seen. The type is crisp and sharp, it has full multiple-media functionality – video, graphics, TTV, links to the web.”

Kurzweil described Blio in an article by Publisher’s Weekly as “the ultimate expression of my work over the years.”

He added: “It will have wide distribution and will be available not only to the general reader and to the blind, but to the millions of people who suffer from Dyslexia.”