Ereader sales in China may exceed 3 million in 2010

[BenLee]

Teleread points out an article in China Knowledge that predicts over 3 million eReader units sold by the end of the year. That's no small amount. A healthy market internationally could be just what the eReader market needs right now.

In light of the recent price cuts which will probably devastate a few of the secondary companies, this might point to a brighter future. As long as there is significant support for eReaders somewhere, companies will justify producing them and we hopefully will be able to enjoy them for years to come.

[LDBoblo]

Luckily they're not too popular in Taiwan yet. I've seen a mild explosion of companies selling cheapo Green Book devices, and there are a few websites that are trying to push them, but other than foreign tourists, I have only met a few people with ebook readers.

They're definitely recognizable though, as I've been asked about mine on a few occasions, even when not carrying it.

[BenLee]

Ah ok. So Taiwan still hasn't picked up eReaders just yet.

I am curious as to what type of devices they have over in China aside from the iPad knockoff called the iPed I saw a few weeks ago. After seeing the video for the iPed, I was very unimpressed. Screen did not seem as responsive from what I can tell and the OS was kinda laggy. Maybe they missed the point but the iPad is more than just the cool design.

[danbloom]

Originally Posted by LDBoblo

...they're not too popular in Taiwan...

LDB, in Taiwan? Didn't know.

[LDBoblo]

Originally Posted by BenLee

Ah ok. So Taiwan still hasn't picked up eReaders just yet.

I am curious as to what type of devices they have over in China aside from the iPad knockoff called the iPed I saw a few weeks ago. After seeing the video for the iPed, I was very unimpressed. Screen did not seem as responsive from what I can tell and the OS was kinda laggy. Maybe they missed the point but the iPad is more than just the cool design.

It's not really for a lack of trying that Taiwan isn't taking to them...selection is pretty poor and the devices are really unconvincing. I usually tell people who ask me about mine to not bother for a while, and that seems to be a very agreeable way to go. If you're a Chinese reader, paper books are easy and convenient to get, pretty inexpensive, and far more readable than E-Ink.

As far as devices in China, the go-to website is usually mobread (heh, a few things to chuckle at in that name). Some of the bigger names are shown there, with a bunch of more domestic brands. Design usually ranges from pretty bad to laughable, and there are plenty of clone devices. Of course there are also the craptablets that do little but to make the iPad look good, and there are probably plenty of them in Shenzhen in particular, but there's a pretty healthy proliferation of e-paper devices. Unfortunately, there's pretty much no innovation, and design tends to be very incompetent. Sad as it may sound, most of the devices available outside of China are the cream of the crop.

[HansTWN]

In Taiwan it is more the lack of availability of Traditional Chinese ebooks that is holding readers back. You can get the classics from websites in China but they tend to be extremely badly formatted and those sites are riddled with viruses. And the Chinese translations of popular foreign books are not available at all. The devices work well enough for regular novel reading.

[BenLee]

Seems like they still have a long ways to go to get it going. I've purchased a few books in China and they were usually printed on what seemed like newspaper grade paper.