Sharp challenges rivals in lucrative e-reader market

TOKYO

SHARP said on Tuesday that it would launch an e-reader this year, which can handle text as well as video and audio content, in a bid to challenge Apple and other rivals in the lucrative market.

The Japanese electronics giant said that it had updated its e-book format with the “nextgeneration XMDF” platform, an advanced multimedia version of the XMDF format for text and still images that it launched in 2001.

“The next-generation XMDF enables easy viewing of digital content, including video and audio, and allows automatic adjustment of the layout to match and meet publishers’ needs,” Sharp said in a statement.

Sharp plans to begin the service and sell two types of e-readers, which resemble Apple’s iPhone and iPad, by the end of the year in Japan, and will then also export the gadgets.

“Now, there is a lot of attention on the e-publishing business,” Mr Masami Obatake, a senior Sharp official, told a news of this year will be good timing.”

The company said it had already reached basic accords with major Japanese publishers
and newspaper companies on content, adding that it was open to further collaboration to establish an e-book market.

In late May, Sony announced a similar plan jointly with telecoms operator KDDI, the Asahi Shimbun newspaper company and the Toppan printing company, with each company taking a 25 per cent stake.
AFP

http://myepaper.mypaper.sg/ebook/web_php/System/Zoom_In/Zoom_In_Page.html