Wang Jianzhou, also China Mobile’s chairman, called e-reading a “new culture” with a big potential for growth in China because of the rising popularity of smart phones, which can download content faster than conventional cell phones.

I a panel discussion in Taiwan, Wang said that China Mobile already is promoting the use of e-readers, a palm-sized unit that allows people to receive large volumes of content on a glare-free screen, unlike the cell phones.

Wang added that China Mobile already has 40 million customers who receive news briefs daily with their cell phones.

“That has exceeded the circulation of many newspapers,” Wang said to Taiwan?s Business Weekly. He is on a nine-day trip to Taiwan to seek partners and suppliers for its emerging third-generation mobile business.

He signed a memorandum Monday with Taiwan’s High Tech Computer Corp. to jointly develop smartphones that will run with its 3G network and placed an e-reader order with Taiwan’s Foxconn Technology Group, the world’s largest contract electronics manufacturer.

According to Digitimes, China Mobile plans to team up with Foxconn Electronics for the production of ereaders, with the shipments to start as early as the first half of 2010.

The report added that Wang said China Mobile plans to spend a minimum of 120 billion yuan ($17.5 billion) over the next three years on mobile products, including cell phones, laptops and e-readers.

China has 680 million cell phone users already and its three main mobile carriers have a combined 7 million new users each month, Wang said.

“We need to lower cell phone prices so more of our 700 million farmers will have access to the service,” he said.

Source : Konaxis