By Kim Tong-hyung
It was just this spring that technology companies here were talking about how their electronic book readers will revolutionize the publishing industry, save the dead-tree media and relieve traveling booklovers from excess baggage. But it now appears that their commitment to e-readers is fading quicker than one could say ``iPad.’’
It remains to be seen which device will end up changing reading more ― tablet computers like Apple’s all-purpose touch-screen gadget or dedicated digital readers for books and newspapers like the Amazon Kindle. At least for Koreans, however, the answer seems obvious as they race to leap on the tablet bandwagon.
A slew of new tablet devices have been unveiled by Korean companies recently, highlighted by Samsung Electronics’ Galaxy Tab that was revealed at the IFA conference in Berlin last week. For Samsung, which is enduring a severe beating from Apple in the competition over consumer smartphones, getting early out of the gate in the market for keyboard and mouse-free computers is crucial for preventing the iPad from cementing its dominant hold in the nascent market.
However, the birth of the Galaxy Tab was made astride the grave of Papyrus, Samsung’s first e-book reader that was released just in February. The sales of Papyrus have been disappointing, with consumers here turned off by the device’s lavish price tag and the lack of a content ecosystem, and Samsung is now pulling the plugs on its digital ink-based products to concentrate on tablets instead.
Papyrus wasn’t the only e-book reader that was rendered anonymous. Online retailer Inter Park was hoping to mimic Amazon’s success with Kindle when it launched its own-brand e-book reader called Biscuit earlier this year.
However, the paucity of fanfare has recently forced Inter Park to lower the price of the devices by nearly 40 percent, from 398,000 won to 249,000 won (about $212), just four months into its debut. Inter Park is apparently reluctant to how many Biscuits were sold, but industry watchers believe the number to be around 30,000.
Bookcube Networks, a provider of digital publishing content, has also lowered the prices of its e-book readers dramatically. The company is providing a limited number of its B-815 devices at discount price of 149,000 won, which is comparable to the price of the Kindle’s newest version that is selling for around $140 in the United States. Bookcube managed to sell just 5,000 of its earlier e-book reader, B-612, which was released in February.
Cover Story, the newest e-book reader released by iRiver, is priced at 259,000 won and 289,000 won for the Wi-Fi-enabled version, lower than the company’s previous device, Story, which came with a 349,000 won price tag.
``To put it simply, the prices of the e-book readers have been too expensive, especially when consumers complain there is nothing much to read on them. And it’s not like Koreans are famous for their spending on real books, so it’s hard to imagine them quickly developing an appetite for electronic ones,’’ said an official from Kyobo Bookstore, the country’s largest book retailer.
``We don’t have the wealth in digital publishing content yet that would allow dedicated e-book readers to become a meaningful business, and it’s easy to understand why consumers will rather wait for tablets, which could be used not only for reading e-books, but also for games, entertainment and Web browsing. The network and video capabilities of tablets also allow larger freedom for digital publishers in delivering different types of content, and this is apparently important for specialized publishers, such developing child education content.’’
It would be harsh to write off e-book readers as a loser in the competition for paperless papers. In enabling digitized reading, most e-book readers employ digital ink technology designed to recreate the effect of reading a page in a regular book, while reducing the affects from backlight and glare, making them more suitable for long-time reading than other digital devices.
The problem, however, is that there isn’t much to read on these expensive black-and-white screens, as Korean publishers have been slow to make the transition from analog to digital publishing despite the country’s reputation as one of the planet’s most wired nations.
This makes tablets sexier for Korean consumers, as they support a wealth of functions, such as video, games, Web browsing and mobile television atop of masquerading as e-book readers.