The Digital Reader

From the press release:

Research and Markets has announced the addition of the “Asia Pacific Wireless E-Reader and Touch Screen Tablet Market – Insights and Forecast to 2014” report to their offering.

This research report outlines results of APRG’s latest research on the e-reader and tablet market in Asia Pacific. Results of focus groups conducted in major locations across Asia, as well as discussions with a number of publishers, and product development and engineering teams provides a timely forecast of the market opportunities for e-readers and tablets in Asia Pacific.

Highlights of some of the key findings include:

• We expect strong growth for e-readers and tablets as Asian consumers are seeking content anywhere, anytime. Our outlook for these devices is that more than 4 million devices will be sold in 2011- 2012, resulting in more than $1.5 billion in revenue.
• There is actually a very strong preference for digital media across Asia. The romantic idea of holding a bound paper edition is not a pervasive emotion in Asia.
• The youth market is ready now – they are not only keen on the idea of e-readers and tablets, but they are ready to purchase them. Tablets will bridge the gap between e-readers and netbooks. Tablets will not only display books and magazines, but can stream video and music to users.
• In Asia, e-content desires lean heavily towards non-fiction, magazines and periodicals, comics, and trade publications; price-points must be far more realistic than Amazon is charging.
• Japan’s publishing industry deals with a massive number of titles, with as many as 70,000 new titles added each year. Over 4,000 magazine titles are currently in retail circulation. Publishers are expecting some genres to distribute well over a million issues digitally.