Domestic e-books seek to "breakthrough" products are increasingly diverse

In just over a year, the fate of the once-popular domestic e-books has radically changed – not only because of dismal sales, but also because many manufacturers have withdrawn, and this has caused the industry to see the future in general. In the United States on the other side of the ocean, Amazon, the world's largest online retailer, recently announced that its sales of Kindle e-books surpassed paper books for the first time.

What is the status and prospect of domestic e-books? How can domestic e-book vendors break out of the current siege of tablets and smart phones led by the iPad and open up their own sunny roads?

The United States monthly sales of 30 sets of the status quo can not be optimistic last month, the domestic e-book giant Hanwang Technology said that iPad1 price cuts affect the first quarter loss of more than 4000 million, causing the industry's future disputes on e-books. According to the latest data from the Zero2IPO Research Center, 282.5 million e-readers were sold in China in the first quarter of 2011, down 7.41% from 305,100 units in the fourth quarter of last year, which once occupied the domestic e-reader market share. % Hanwang Technology has dropped by as much as 22.62%.

Judging from market conditions, the status quo of e-books is indeed not optimistic. Shenzhen Huaqiang North, known as the leader of the domestic electronic market, has seen almost all kinds of well-known or unknown e-books a year ago. Hanwang e-book counters are usually located in major electronic malls such as SEG and Cyberspace. The most prominent gold location on the second and third floors. Now Huaqiang North, in addition to Hanwang almost impossible to see other brands of e-books, replaced by a variety of brands of smart phones and tablet computers; even the Hanwang will also significantly reduce the size of the counter, the location moved to inconspicuous places.

“E-books can only read books. Nowadays, smart phones and tablet computers have more features than those that can read books. The price is almost even cheaper. Who do you say consumers will choose?” Huaqiang North Gome, a Hanwang counter Salespersons said that nowadays they can occasionally sell a few e-books a day, but it is more likely that they will not be able to sell for more than a few days. Last year, e-books could sell hundreds of them a day. This Hanwang counter was once located in the most prominent location on the second floor of the mall and is now at the corner of the escalator. According to the reporter’s understanding, as of yesterday, the Shenzhen Gome Hanwang e-book only sold more than 30 units, while the iPad2 sold nearly 600 units, and Lenovo's Pad sales reached more than 200 units.

Hua Qiang North had a tablet computer dealer told reporters that last year, he also sold e-books at the end of last year, but the tablet PC represented by the Apple iPad to the impact of e-books is too great, they turned to do a tablet computer. Mr. Zeng said that not only many e-book distributors have switched to smart phones and tablet computers, even many e-book makers, especially cottage manufacturers, have stopped e-book production. It is understood that there were about 100 domestic manufacturers involved in the e-book market a year ago, and there are only about 20 voice and sales manufacturers in the domestic e-book market.

Marriage Network Bookstore expands the extension channel "Amazon is today the future of the Hanwang," - from the loss of more than 40 million in the first quarter of this year, to the recent 38% of e-book products significantly reduced prices - despite the recent controversy caused by Hanwang Technology, the company Chairman Liu Yingjian still firmly believes that the future of e-books is immeasurable, and the losses and price cuts of Hanwang are only the pain of transformation.

“This is just the unavoidable pain of Hanwang in the process of transition,” Liu Yingjian admitted in a telephone interview with reporters. At present, Hanwang does have some difficulties, but the difficulties are temporary.

Liu Yingjian said that from the current market, the sales of e-books will soon exceed the sales of paper books. In the United States, the amount of e-book downloads has accounted for 80% of the total compared to the total volume of hardcover books and paperback books. As long as he can win enough users through low-priced Hanwang e-books, Hanwang can become China's Amazon - the future Hanwang will transform from a company that makes money from hardware to a company that makes profits from platforms and content.

“Hanwang will build the world’s largest e-book library in the future with content as the king,” said Liu Yingjian. As early as last month, Hanwang Book City has reached strategic cooperation with Shanda Cloud Middle Book City and Founder Apabi Digital Resource Platform. Personal reading and industry reading work together to create a digital reading market.

In fact, it has long been a consensus in the industry to increase platform and content development. According to analysis by the Zero2IPO Research Center, the sales of Shanda e-books performed well this year, mainly due to the Shanda Literature Cloud Zhongshu. In fact, the success of iPad also benefited from the construction of its online platform. Yi Yi Consulting general manager Zhang Yi also said that compared to the Tablet PC, e-books in the comfort of reading is very obvious advantages, if Hanwang Technology and other e-book vendors like Amazon, open up the content channel or there is room for development.

The single drawback of changing functions has been one of the most fundamental reasons why users have criticized the single product upgrade e-book function. In response to this, Liu Yingjian said, "We will continue to upgrade product features." It is understood that most of the e-books produced by Hanwang since last year already have Internet access capabilities. E-books that did not have Internet access before can also be imported into e-books through computer downloads. In addition, Hanwang will continue to adopt the latest technology in its products to improve its product competitiveness. The Hanwang 9.7-inch large-screen ebook E920 released by Hanwang has adopted a new dual-touch technology based on the E-INK screen (third-generation electromagnetic pen + finger).

In fact, many manufacturers have long realized that the e-book function was too single in the past, and have upgraded product features in order to attract users. Taking the Shanda Bambook e-book as an example, the WebOS system developed based on Android has not only the traditional e-book function, but also supports WiFi and 3G Internet access. The new eBook models of the Patriots have added features such as high-definition video playback, photo browsing, and music playback. Some of Newman’s e-book models are also equipped with Android’s operating system, touch screen, etc., and are gradually aligned with the tablet computer.

In addition to the transformation of business models and product upgrades, Liu Yingjian stated that in the future Hanwang will no longer focus on the gift market. “From 2008 to 2010, it was a period of preheat for the e-book market in China. E-books are still a new thing. As gifts, there are more. But now The e-book gift traits have gradually diminished and will enter the era of mass consumption from this year.” Liu Yingjian believes that from the perspective of the e-book’s long-term development, it is obviously not enough to target high-end consumer groups. This is also the case for Hanwang, including the grand eBook before The root cause of price cuts.

He also said that in addition to trying to enter the personal consumer market, the Hanwang will continue to attack the professional market. It is understood that Hanwang's industrial market is basically in the retail market, and Hanwang's recently launched large-screen ebook E920 is the main attack market, positioning office.

In addition, Hanwang has been operating the education market. “The market for education will become the most important source of revenue for Hanwang in the future.” According to Liu Yingjian’s assumption, textbooks for future elementary and junior high schools will all adopt e-books. In his opinion, the education market is much larger than the gift market.