hankyoreh

By Kim Seon-sik

While the popularity of table PCs is rising, a new e-reader could be taking the market to a new level. I-River, which launched the e-reader Story K on Jan. 17th, announced on Thursday that only nine days after its release, all 4000 units of the initial supply were sold out. The speed of sale is remarkable when one considers that domestic sales of e-readers have been around fifty thousand units total over the past three years. The Story K, which goes for 99 thousand won ($88) is significantly less expensive than other e-readers or tablet PCs, which are priced at two to three hundred thousand won ($178 to $267) and nine hundred thousand won ($800) respectively.

The Story K can access around 110 thousand books from Kyobo Books. In order to improve slow screen transition speed, the Story K is loaded with 800 MHz Core-tex Central Processing Unit (CPU). The screen is six inches and uses 8 grayscale and digital ink (e-ink) to simulate paper and ink. A single charge provides battery life of six weeks and 14 thousand pages of reading.

“In the United States, people who read a lot prefer the Amazon Kindle, and those who read light material such as magazines prefer the iPad, dividing the demand,” said an official from I-River. “Currently, tablet PCs are popular in Korea, but starting with the Story K, we are planning to expand the line-up of e-readers.”

(Translated by Kim Joon-ki, Intern)

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