China Mobile picks Taiwan firm to supply electronic readers

TAIPEI - China Mobile Ltd, the world’s largest mobile phone carrier, has decided to pick Taiwan’s electronics giant Hon Hai Group as its supplier of electronic readers, a top company official said Saturday.

“We have picked Hong Hai Group to make electronic readers for us and we believe the electronic reader market will be huge,” said Wang Jianzhou, chairman of China Mobile, on the second day of his nine-day visit to Taiwan.

Hon Hai, which has designed electronic readers for the Joint Innovation Lab, formed by China Mobile, Vodafone, Softbank and Verizone Wireless, is expected to ship the first batch of electronic readers for China Mobile in the first half of next year, group officials said.

Earlier this year, China Mobile said it would buy 12 percent of Far EasTone, Taiwan’s third-largest telecom operator, a planned deal that has been frustrated by the island’s regulations that bars foreign firms from investing in direct telecommunication operations.