Problems and Opportunities in the Development of China's Electronic Paper Book

The inheritance of human civilization is inextricably linked with the recording and dissemination of texts. Two of the four inventions in ancient China were related to them. One is papermaking in the Eastern Han Dynasty, and the other is printing in the Song Dynasty. The paper produced is used to record text, and printing can make the text spread farther. The paper's "evolution" process, from the initial oracle bones to bamboo slips to paper, is because the latter is more easily carried and preserved than the former and has been chosen and used by humans. As the digital era becomes more and more invasive, the two kinds of technologies used by humans such as printing and papermaking for hundreds of years and thousands of years are likely to be replaced by an emerging electronic product that has emerged in the last two years. It is electronic paper. book.

What is an electronic paper book? It is a new type of handheld reader that uses an electronic paper display screen to read most of the current formats of electronic books such as PDF, CHM, TXT, etc. So compared with traditional books, it is more environmentally friendly and saves space. E-books stored in their memory cards can easily reach thousands of books, no less than a small library. If you want to put so many books at home, you need a lot of space. The face of high prices, many people can only choose to dwelling, had already suspected that their place of residence is too small, where there will be so much space to keep books? With mobile phones, MP3, computers and other electronic devices to see Compared to e-books, e-papers using e-paper technology have the advantages of low radiation, low power consumption, proper screen size, and realistic display effects. They look the same as reading books and do not hurt the eyes.

It is predicted that the global number of electronic paper books will increase from 1 million units in 2008 to 29 million units in 2013, maintaining a compound annual growth rate of 24%. According to a survey conducted by a research institute, in fiscal year 2009, electronic paper books sold 500,000 units in the domestic market, and this year it will reach a scale of 3 million units. Although it is still a negligible niche market compared with mobile phones and computers, the growth rate is very fast because the number of the past is very small. In spite of this, but what are the problems and opportunities faced by the development of domestic electric paper books? At the 2010 World Electronic Paper Technology Conference and e-reader exhibition held in Shenzhen, excellent companies from the electronic paper book industry chain gathered together. These issues were discussed in depth.

Problems in the Development of Domestic Electronic Paper Books

1. Although the market has not yet been opened, there are already large companies including Hanwang, Hanlin, Founder, Great Wall, and Datang Telecom, as well as some specialized electronic paper brands such as Fuxin, Xinboyou, and EDO. Enterprises, and even some traditional MP3 manufacturers such as Taipower, Newman, OPPO entered. Some analysts said that there will be about 100 companies entering the market for electronic paper this year. There are even more than 400 companies involved in the analysis, including cottages, and these companies are fighting each other. If so many enterprises come to fight for a market of 3 million units, if they do not have their own core advantages, it is bound to be a fierce price war.

2. The e-book content format standards used in electronic paper books are not uniform. Because Amazon has a good relationship with traditional publishers, it is very convenient to do e-books to get content. Its Kindle reader also simply supports several formats. The number of e-book formats supported by domestic e-books is as many as 20, many of which are in the format developed by e-paper book manufacturers. Other e-books cannot be compatible, and if they are compatible, e-paper can be compatible. The book's chip requirements are very high, so its cost has become a contradiction. More importantly, the inconsistency of the format standards is not conducive to the spread of e-books and hinders the development of the e-paper industry.

3. The important part in the electronic paper book The electronic paper screen mainland cannot produce. At present, the e-paper used in the e-paper book is mainly the E-ink screen of Yuantai, but now its price is high, which also affects the cost of e-books to a certain extent, making the prices of e-books all around 1,400. Even reached 3,000 yuan or more. Compared with the domestic income level, it is still too high. This is also an important factor affecting the development of electronic paper books.

Opportunities for the Development of Domestic Electronic Paper Books

1. The number of people reading e-books has increased significantly. There are two figures that illustrate this issue. One is that for the first time in China last year, the output value of digital publishing exceeded the output value of paper publishing for the first time, and new varieties of online publishing and electronic publishing have exceeded traditional publications in terms of total volume. According to the second data, the number of e-readers and readers on the Internet has begun to be equal to the number of traditional paper-based readings, or it has reached a relatively close level. In other words, the way people read is undergoing tremendous changes. In recent years, the reading power of the people has continued to decline, but at the same time, the proportion of citizens in online reading and electronic reading has increased.

2. According to the test report of the electronic paper book conducted by the China Institute of Publishing Science in the second half of 2009, the current domestic electronic paper book has obvious advantages. In terms of the overall ranking, through the testing of eleven electronic paper books, two of the top three were domestic products. Only the appearance and industrial design of home-made electric paper books are urgently needed to be strengthened. In addition, from the current market share, domestic electronic paper books also occupy the vast majority of the market.

summary

Since electronic paper book manufacturers cannot establish their own content platforms like Amazon in a short period of time, it is very necessary to establish cooperation with domestic e-book content providers to provide consumers with stable, favorite e-book content sources. Although domestic electronic paper books now account for most of the market share, it is still necessary to make efforts on the appearance and software to design consumer-friendly electronic paper books so that they can compete with foreign electronic paper book brands that later entered China. At the same time, it also urgently needs to improve the relevant regulations and standards for domestic production of electronic paper books, so as to provide a strong guarantee for the healthy development of the electronic paper book industry.