AND NOW FOR SOMETHING DIFFERENT! A CHINESE LANGUAGE eREADER.

The Chinese company Aigo have produced an eReader that is aimed at the Chinese market, which if it takes off will be selling in HUGE numbers - there are after all 1.3 billion people in the PRC, not to mention all the Chinese in the diaspora all over the world who would probably welcome an eReader that supports Chinese characters.

THE AIGO EB 6031 - EXCITING NAME, ISNT IT?

SCREEN:

It has a 6" e-Ink display, so conforms well with the world standard for screens in this respect (Other Chinese eReaders seem to favour LCD screens, sadly).  I can find very little information on this eReader on the net just now, but I imagine more will appear in time, so I can revisit this eReader later.

MEMORY:

It has 2GB of on-board memory, which is ample for a huge collection of books, so no problems there, even though it doesn't have the possibility of using memory cards of any sort.

WiFi SUPPORT:

Simple, it doesn't have it, which is curious, as other Chinese eReader manufacturers are selling machines that can use the Chinese 3G network to download books, so I have no doubt that Aigo will add this to later models before long.  One thing that the Chinese know about is how the markets work, and  they hate missing any tricks!   They have 5000 years of practice after all.

NAVIGATION:

As you can see in the picture, this eReader comes complete with no end of buttons all over it, sadly I have no information about what they all do (Duh!), but obviously they have decided to give it every conceivable navigation possibility, especially for the left handed among us obviously.  Is this a subtle political comment?

SUPPORTED FORMATS:

Apparently it supports all the standard eBook formats, so our Chinese brothers and sisters will be able to access Chinese books on all the better online book sites, especially ones such as Gutenberg, who have Chinese texts available.

COST:

I only have information about the price in China just now, which is about 2500 RMB, which at current exchange rates equals about 360 USD, so it is not cheap, but equally not too expensive, and from my experience in China, no one will pay that price for it.... they all bargain like mad things.

Sadly this Blog cant be seen in China, as the government there blocks all Blog Spot Blogs for some reason, but in a matter of weeks I shall be transferring this whole Blog to a WordPress host, which can be read in China...