Asian Defense News: TAIPEI, Taiwan - Taiwan leads the world in development of readers for the fast-growing electronic book market, but when it comes to satisfying the e-appetites of the island's highly literate population, it seems distinctly pre-digital.The problem: A gaping lack of appealing Chinese-language content.
At this week's 18th annual Taipei Book Exhibition, cutting-edge gadgets offered by Taiwanese tech companies were loaded with little beyond translations of classical Western literature and well-known Chinese standards like The Romance of the Three Kingdoms. Compelling material to entice contemporary-minded readers was conspicuously absent.
And while buyers of devices like the nReader K60 — made by Taiwanese PC maker BenQ — are given the opportunity to purchase additional material from affiliated Web sites, the selection is limited and best sellers are almost nowhere to be found.
The problem arises partly because publishers are uncertain what impact e-books may have on their revenues, said Albert Hsu, a manager in the e-Publishing Service Platform Department of Taiwan computer maker Acer Inc.
"One major problem is that publishers are worried that if they sell books in their electronic format, it could hurt the sale of paper copies," Hsu said.
Hsu added that publishers are also concerned the content could be more easily shared — and sales suffer — if books are published in electronic format.
One company trying to buck the dull content trend is Yuan-Liou Publishing Co., a Taipei-based firm cooperating with e-book reader developer Koobe Inc. to produce an e-reader that will feature the works of a renowned writer of Chinese martial art novels.
Yuan-Liou assistant marketing supervisor Ophelia Chen said her company's reader will come with all 36 books by Hong Kong-based Louis Cha — better known as Jin Yong — in their electronic format.
By DEBBY WU , Associated Press Last update: January 28, 2010 - 4:07 AM
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