Hardware and software integration will become a key factor in Taiwan’s e-book industry as it cashes in on the fast-growing market driven by Amazon’s Kindle e-reader and Apple’s iPad, according to the Market Intelligence and Consulting Institute (MIC, 產業情報研究所).
The key factor for success in the e-book market is how to integrate digital content with the information and communication technology industry value chain, including the publication, software and Internet service sectors, to build up a profitable business model, MIC researcher Chris Hung (洪春暉) said recently in an e-mailed statement.
INTEGRATION
As some Taiwanese hardware makers have become major suppliers to international e-reader companies and provide related key components, such as electronic paper, the country should put more effort into establishing integrated e-book platforms with operators to strengthen its digital reading services and value-added content, Hung said.
Last year, worldwide e-reader shipments reached 9.77 million units, an increase of 220 percent from 2009, and the number is expected to more than double this year and hit 20.56 million units, MIC said.
GROWING POPULARITY
The launch of the iPad last year, which saw 15 million units sold in nine months, has made digital reading increasingly popular among consumers, while Amazon, the industry leader, continues to spur e-book sales in the US market by cutting the price of the Kindle, the research firm said.
According to the Association of American Publishers, e-book sales in the US grew to US$440 million last year, representing 8 percent of total book sales. In 2009, e-book sales in that country approached US$169.5 million, but accounted for only 3.31 percent of total book sales.
Hung forecast that market growth will surge this year as most industry players plan to launch advanced e-paper technologies with low-power consumption and color displays, which are expected to attract more consumers to e-readers.
Among the rows of vibrators, rubber torsos and leather harnesses at a Chinese sex toys exhibition in Shanghai this weekend, the beginnings of an artificial intelligence (AI)-driven shift in the industry quietly pulsed. China manufactures about 70 percent of the world’s sex toys, most of it the “hardware” on display at the fair — whether that be technicolor tentacled dildos or hyper-realistic personalized silicone dolls. Yet smart toys have been rising in popularity for some time. Many major European and US brands already offer tech-enhanced products that can enable long-distance love, monitor well-being and even bring people one step closer to
Malaysia’s leader yesterday announced plans to build a massive semiconductor design park, aiming to boost the Southeast Asian nation’s role in the global chip industry. A prominent player in the semiconductor industry for decades, Malaysia accounts for an estimated 13 percent of global back-end manufacturing, according to German tech giant Bosch. Now it wants to go beyond production and emerge as a chip design powerhouse too, Malaysian Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim said. “I am pleased to announce the largest IC (integrated circuit) Design Park in Southeast Asia, that will house world-class anchor tenants and collaborate with global companies such as Arm [Holdings PLC],”
Sales in the retail, and food and beverage sectors last month continued to rise, increasing 0.7 percent and 13.6 percent respectively from a year earlier, setting record highs for the month of March, the Ministry of Economic Affairs said yesterday. Sales in the wholesale sector also grew last month by 4.6 annually, mainly due to the business opportunities for emerging applications related to artificial intelligence (AI) and high-performance computing technologies, the ministry said in a report. The ministry forecast that retail, and food and beverage sales this month would retain their growth momentum as the former would benefit from Tomb Sweeping Day
Thousands of parents in Singapore are furious after a Cordlife Group Ltd (康盛人生集團), a major operator of cord blood banks in Asia, irreparably damaged their children’s samples through improper handling, with some now pursuing legal action. The ongoing case, one of the worst to hit the largely untested industry, has renewed concerns over companies marketing themselves to anxious parents with mostly unproven assurances. This has implications across the region, given Cordlife’s operations in Hong Kong, Macau, Indonesia, the Philippines and India. The parents paid for years to have their infants’ cord blood stored, with the understanding that the stem cells they contained