China Mobile to offer subsidized e-ink reader

We don't know how well a subsidized e-reader would fly in the States, but it looks like we're soon to find out how well it does in China. The AirPaper50T e-book reader sports a 6-inch (800 x 600) e-ink display up top, another 3.7-inch display below for navigation (we guess), and allows you to purchase books for between 3 and 5 yuan (between $0.43 and $1.02) from China Mobile's store, over its TD-SCDMA and GSM networks. This bad boy also sports a USB interface for transferring files from our PC (which is good, 'cos it has no WiFi) and a SIM card slot, and a single charge can last some 30,000 page views or sit in standby mode for 7 days. Let us know how this one works out for you, eh?

AirPaper50T e-reader

[Via Engadget Chinese]

[SophT Posted Sep 11th 2009 4:04AM]

6.8:1 exchage rate (CNY:USD) 5 quai is a steal for an e-book. I just want to know the cost for the device.

[Dustin F Posted Sep 11th 2009 4:17AM]

Cheaper E-Readers a much better idea than better e-readers.

The reason is that books get dropped, slapped, and deal with crums and drinks. They are very durable. E books should be too. I should not have to worry as much about my ereader when I read it by the pool, or if I drop it.

I hope the technology moves to cheap rugged instead of super fancy awesome. I'm sure it will go both ways to some extent, but for most folks, it just doesn't make sense to replace your paper book with something that is basically inferior.

[tonicboy Posted Sep 11th 2009 4:44AM]

I agree with you on everything up until the remark about ebook readers being "basically inferior". How a device - which can hold hundreds of books at once and do many other tasks which paper books cannot do - can be considered inferior is beyond me.

[fastolfe Posted Sep 11th 2009 9:11AM]

@Tonicboy
Maybe he likes dog-ears.

[Shinigami Posted Sep 11th 2009 8:00PM]

@Tonicboy
Drop ebook into the pool.
Now you know why paper books are superior - you can still read it afterwards. Besides, price-wise its the same - hundreds of paper books or one e-book reader with hundreds of e-books.

[Pies Posted Sep 11th 2009 8:15PM]

How often do you drop shit in the pool? Seriously.

[Plothole Posted Sep 11th 2009 5:51AM]

I'm starting to wonder if and how long dedicated ebook readers like this are really going to last. Right now their main selling points relate to the display: eInk offers high contrast reflectivity/daylight readability and its bistable nature makes it very battery friendly. Though the sluggish refresh and lack of color currently makes it ill-suited for a more general purpose device. On the other hand EInk Corp. has shown early prototypes that address both issues. Plus there are other emerging technologies, like 3Qi and IMOD, which offer some of the same advantages.

Anyways... that 30,000 page flips sounds just a weeeee bit exaggerated. Especially with that Touchscreen. Speaking of which, I wonder if it lets you input sinographs? And yeah, just how much will this actually costs after subsidizing?

[Gregorian Posted Sep 11th 2009 6:41AM]

Oh great. They saw what Amazon did with 1984, and want to be able to do that too...
It's much easier to change the past when you can do it digitally.

[hmmwv Posted Sep 11th 2009 10:27AM]

I'd be happy with an ebook reader without any wireless capabilities if the price is right.Transferring books to the reader via USB is good enough, I mean, how often do you need to buy new books anyway? Unless you want to read newspapers on it.

[wowoah Posted Sep 11th 2009 11:59AM]

Newspapers and magazines will be the killer app for e-readers. Someone needs to take a good device (like the Amazon Kindle DX) and attach a 1 or 2-year contract to a periodical to subsidize the cost. Maybe they could take Audible's model and give "credits" for you to redeem with your favorite magazine or newspaper. Hell, that'd get me to buy one.

[TIMMAH Posted Sep 11th 2009 1:47PM]

I just got a Sony eBook reader a couple weeks ago with a 800x600 screen. It's a good trade-off between portability and screen size. What really makes the reader useful though is the formats it can handle and the ability to manipulate those formats. I found that my Sony reader could resize and reflow PDF files whereas other readers I looked at could not.

[Shinigami Posted Sep 11th 2009 8:01PM]

For that price I'll get 100!!!

[Pies Posted Sep 11th 2009 8:16PM]

Sub-$100 durable readers and $1-$5 a book is what I hope for.

[Dinochicken Posted Sep 12th 2009 11:12AM]

Dedicated ebook hardware is now known as a "Liseuse", and the standalone or built in software is referred to as an "eReader".

[Plothole Posted Sep 13th 2009 3:50AM]

Liseuse?

How do you even pronounce that?