Chinese brands focus on e-book readers good for Taiwan.

Taipei, Nov. 4, 2009 (CENS)--Chinese companies as Hanwang Technology, Datang Telecom and Founder Technology are focusing on the e-book reader market and launching their own-brand models, which is likely to build opportunities for Taiwanese suppliers as Prime View International Co. (PVI) and Hon Hai Precision Industry Co., Ltd.

PVI is the world's leading supplier of e-paper displays, while Hon Hai supplies 80% of e-book readers as the largest manufacturer globally. In addition to Amazon's globally-famous Kindle, the two firms have also landed orders from Barnes & Noble, Inc. for i'nooki? e-book readers and Datang Telecom's AirPaper.

Scott Liu, chairman of PVI, indicated that rising product familiarity among consumers has led to marked increases in the number of clients recently, hence driving it to launch more cutting-edge products, including the flexible e-paper display to be debuted by the end of this year and a color model slated for the third quarter of next year. The popularity of e-book readers has enabled the firm to score a new high of NT$1.47 billion (US$45.23 million at US$1: NT$32.5) in sales in September.

Liu said that its existing display panel factories, including three Korea-based that have been already acquired by PVI this year, will run at full capacity soon. But, the firm has secured extra production capacity from Chi Mei Optoelectronics Corp. recently, enabling it to vie for new orders from Chinese clients.

NextGen Research's report shows that the scale of the global market for e-book readers, driven by Amazon's Kindler, is expected to reach US$25 billion by 2013 at a compound annual growth rate of 124% starting from 2008, assuring Taiwanese makers a promising outlook.

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