Taiwan's Green Book unveils 'world's lightest e-book reader'

Taiwan's Green Book Inc.

Thursday unveiled what it called the world's lightest electronic book reader, weighing just 180 grams (0.4 pounds), days after Apple launched its much-anticipated iPad.

The firm's updated version of "greenbook", the first Chinese-language e-book reader that came out in late 2009, was given its first showing at Computex Taipei, Asia's largest high-tech trade show.

"It is the world's lightest and is better designed to read e-books than iPad as it weighs less and can easily fit into a pocket," said Neo Wang, a vice president at Netronix Inc., Green Book's parent.

The iPad weighs about 1.5 pounds.

Featuring a 15-centimetre (six-inch) screen, the new "greenbook" can store up to 30,000 books with a maximum 32 GB memory and read 8,000 pages with each full battery charge, according to the company.

It is primarily designed for Chinese-language books, but can also be used for other languages.

Wang said Netronix's sales had not been affected by the launch of the iPad in April.

Taiwan last year announced it would invest 2.13 billion Taiwan dollars (66 million US) over five years in digital publishing in a bid to boost the 100 billion Taiwan dollars industry.