Tue, September 07, 2010
TAIPEI, Sept. 7 (Xinhua) -- The Chinese mainland's biggest e-book maker Hanvon is set to open a branch in Taiwan at the end of the month and launch its e-book readers here in October.
The branch office will market e-readers and look to work with the island's content providers, said Hanvon's General Manager Chen Shaoqiang Tuesday.
Chen talked with Xinhua on the sidelines of a forum on digital content industries attended by business people and experts from both the mainland and Taiwan.
A Hanvon will also open e-book stores in Taiwan just ahead of its e-reader launch, Chen said. The company would unveil several new stylish models of e-readers for Taiwan consumers.
"All the e-readers for sale in Taiwan market will be manufactured in the island," he said.
Initially, Hanvon will mainly sell 5 or 6-inch display-based e-readers in the island which will all be black and white, according to Chen.
Chen said Hanvon was partnering with Taiwan-based E Ink Holdings Inc., and would unveil a color e-reader in Japan at the end of next month.
Hanvon developed and launched its first e-reader in 2008. Today, Hanvon dominates China's e-reader market with a 66 percent market share in the first quarter of 2010. Hanvon is the second largest e-reader manufacturer in the world.
The company reported a net profit of 86.88 million yuan (about 12.79 million U.S. dollars) in the first half of this year, an increase of 321.53 percent year on year.
