By Kim Tong-hyung
Staff Reporter
Apple's iPad might kill e-book readers here, according to some industry watchers, although the market for mini laptops, or ``netbooks,'' appears to be a little safer.
The irony is that Apple's new tablet computer, which has yet to reach Korean shores, is expected to inject new life into the country's e-book efforts that had faltered due to a barren ecosystem for devices and content.
However, the iPad is designed to support a larger wealth of online content than just text, and this will be the same for the inevitable stream of me-too products that are to debut in the coming months. This ensures that the days of dedicated e-book readers as mainstream consumer items are all but over ― not that they ever got a real shot in Korea.
Despite sporadic industry efforts over the past years, digital reading devices never took off here due to the lack of content.
And with online content continuing to depart from its text-heavy past and relying increasingly on multimedia, it could be argued that full-screen computing devices like iPad are better positioned to exploit the growing market of electronic publishing than conventional e-book readers.
It remains to be seen whether the single-purpose e-book reader will go the way of the PDA, becoming irrelevant as a standalone tool but ubiquitous as a feature in digital products, found nowhere because it's everywhere.
Samsung Electronics, the world's largest technology company, has been pitching an e-book reader here, while online retailers such as Interpark and Yes 24 have also been announcing devices and content platforms in hopes of aping Amazon's success with Kindle.
However, it appears that the market for these devices will only grow as much as iPad allows it to.
``Apple has proved through the immense success of iPhone that it delivers what consumers want and gets them to pay for it. On the other hand, all the talks about e-books here have been dominated by the interest of device makers, online e-book retailers and traditional publishers, but lacked discussions in securing a wealth of content and creating new services that motivate users to open their wallets,'' said an Internet industry official.
He believes that e-book readers by Samsung and Interpark, both priced at around 380,000 won, could be considered by consumers as too expensive for what are generally viewed as single-purpose devices.
``The e-book market is more than just about the reading devices, as the country still lacks in e-book content. To offer more to read, e-book backers will have to reestablish their relationship with publishers, and the publishers will have to do the same with authors, and there are not enough designers to optimize content for e-book devices,'' he said.
``It's obvious that e-book content has a long way to go before becoming a true driving force here and not many companies will be willing to commit seriously before it does. Devices like iPad would assure that dedicated e-book readers won't have much of a chance, although the recent e-book devices support a wider variety of content than compared to previous models.''
Although there are mixed predictions about the size of its impact, there seems to be little doubt among market experts that iPad could be a game-changer.
The iPad is basically an oversized iPhone minus the phone or an iPod on steroids. The slate-like computer, which intends to bridge the gap between smartphones and laptop computers, allows users to watch movies, browse the Web, play games and read e-books.
The iPad is expected to be released around June or July here, according to industry sources. Apple will release another iPad that offers both Wi-Fi and third-generation (3G) cellular connectivity in the U.S. later this month, but Korean mobile-phone operators KT and SK Telecom are coy on whether the model will be available in Korea this year.
The excitement over the iPad is evident here. KT managed to sell more than 500,000 iPhones just four months into its local release, which was belated due to regulatory tie-ups and reluctance by carriers to ruffle the feathers of Samsung and other local handset vendors.
The immense popularity of Apple's do-it-all handset assures another bout of hype for the company's follow-up product. Of course, something's got to give ― even the geekiest of tech geeks may not want to carry an iPad, e-book reader and netbook in their bag while a bulky smartphone stretches the pocket. And according to a recent survey by KT's economic research unit, Digieco, Korean consumers are most likely to ditch the e-book reader.
About 1,200 adults between their 20s and 40s were asked to pick two out of three devices from an iPad, e-book reader and netbook, and nearly 80 percent of them picked the iPad and netbook combo, according to the report. About 11 percent of them chose the iPad and e-book reader, while only 9.9 percent of them picked the netbook and e-book reader.
When asked to pick their favorite device among the three, nearly 52 percent of the respondents chose iPad, followed by 45 percent for netbooks and just 2.9 percent for e-book readers. This predicts that, at least early on, iPad would devour the market for e-book readers here, although that wouldn't be saying much.
When asked about the letdowns of each device, the respondents complained about the lavish price tag of the iPad, the small screens and weak processing power of netbooks, and limited usability of e-book readers.
``As Korea doesn't have a real e-book market yet, the debut of the Apple iPad would have a positive impact on creating the ecosystem and building the market,'' said Jason Lee, an analyst from Eugene Securities.
``It would be important to find a way to benefit both the device makers, copyright holders and consumers, and how to set the cut for traditional publishers would be key to the growth of the e-book market. Apple has already proved its ability to make everybody happy through its massive success with the iPhone, which sells much better here than Korean handsets with similar hardware clout.''
Some analysts predict that the iPad won't replace the market for netbooks and more conventional laptops here as much as it could in other countries, considering Korea's Microsoft-dominated computing experience. However, Lee believes that there is the possibility that the iPad could seriously wound the appeal of laptops.
``Earlier, analysts debated whether iPad would be more of an attack to mobile phones or netbooks, and we believe the answer is clearer now. The fact that Apple managed to sell 500,000 iPhones, despite all the pre-launch skepticism about different user habits and the lack of a smartphone market, is not something to be underestimated,'' Lee said.