E-book readers have been in existence for three years already but one might want to ask why it’s not yet made easily available in the Philippines? I know we are a nation who loves to read. Why won’t our consumer electronics shops carry e-Book readers? Sony has a presence here but why won’t they bring the Sony Reader on our shores?
I would understand if a year or two ago that there’s not just a demand for it here in the Philippines. With prices ranging from Php10k and up, I would rather buy books from various Book Sale stores. Or stick with my dependable iPod Touch. Or maybe transition to the iPad which has a bigger screen. It seems that Filipinos are warming up to the iPad more than the traditional e-book readers.
The beauty with e-Book readers is that it’s very simple and does what it’s made for really well, which is obviously for reading. You don’t want to surf the net or watch YouTube or listen to mp3’s on it, you just want to use it to read books. With the E-ink display, you can read to your heart’s content without bothering to recharge its battery for days unlike the iPod Touch or the iPad or other devices with traditional LCDs.
Right now, their are e-readers going for less than $150 which I think would cater to us thrifty Filipinos. It won’t be a really huge market but it’s still going to be substantial nevertheless. I’m one of those people who don’t want to deal with disposing books that are gathering dust in my room and would rather prefer buying my books in digital format online. And I’m sure there are quite a number of people like me as well.
I would prefer e-Readers that are not tied up to telcos. A simple one with wifi will do as long as it can read all the usual e-book file formats.
Are you gunning for an e-Reader yourself? Do you think we, Pinoys are ready for it?