Thursday, March 26, 2009

Korea Eyes up eBook Market

One day after announcing the Samsung Papyrus ebook reader we hear that other s are potentially waiting in the wings.

JoongAng Daily report that SK Telecom signed a memorandum of understanding with Neolux, a local e-book manufacturer in December. “Looking at Amazon and Google’s cases, e-books have potential to become a new digital convergence model for the mobile telecommunications industry,” said Kim Gwang-hi, head of the new business team at SKT. “We are in the process of seeking collaboration with other e-book companies as well and plan to launch a product this year.”

LG Telecom’s who are behind our favourite 3G Wrist Smartphone is reported to be also planning the join the leap to the e-book market.

The report also shows that we are not alone in getting books digitised and available to sell. Booktopia, Korea’s largest e-book database, has some 120,000 digital titles but only have half of them are available for sale. “In the past, authors and publishers didn’t consider electronic book copyrights when coming up with contracts,” said Choi Jong-su, vice president of Booktopia.

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