新華字典手機APP收費40元引發爭議

A new paid app for the Xinhua Dictionary - regarded as the highest authority on the Chinese language - has been criticized for charging for the product.

近日，最權威的漢語詞典--《新華字典》的最新APP正式上線，但該軟件卻因收費而遭到了指責。

Commercial Press, which publishes the book, launched the app for Android and Apple devices last Sunday, and almost instantly came under fire when users discovered that only their first two searches were free.

上週日，商務印書館出版了適用於安卓和蘋果系統的《新華字典》APP。然而，當用戶發現每天只能免費查詢兩個字的時候，該APP就立即遭到了批評。

After that, they must pay 40 yuan to continue using the service - more than double the price of a hard copy sold online.

要想繼續查詢，用戶必須支付40塊錢，這相當於網上所售紙質版字典的兩倍還要多。

"Why should we pay when there are so many ways to look up a word, such as on Baidu?" asked one netizen on Sina Weibo. "It only makes sense if there is no alternative to your product."

一位網友在新浪微博上寫道：“我們可以通過百度等多種方式免費查詢字詞，爲什麼要花錢呢？只有在沒有其他查詢方式的情況下，用戶纔會使用這款APP。”

Jiang Yan, operations director for Shanghai Shangdi Digital Publishing Technology, which developed the app, said that the charge will remain.

軟件開發方上海商笛數字出版科技有限公司的運營總監蔣琰表示，收費會保持下去。

"The app is being download more than 100,000 times a day, far more than we expected," he said. "The cost of research and development, operation, maintenance and follow-up services should all be included in the pricing."

他說道：“APP的日下載量達到了10萬次，這遠遠超乎我們的預料。收費是用於軟件的研發、運營、維護和後續服務等。”

He added that the app is not in the same category as the print edition, since users can keep the app without any worries about it becoming damaged or outdated, and it will be updated regularly.

他還表示，APP與紙質版字典的不同之處在於，用戶不用擔心字典會損壞，也不用擔心字典會過時，因爲會定期更新軟件的版本。

The mobile app has Li Ruiying, a former anchor for China Central TV, pronounce each character. It also illustrates a word's stroke sequence.

據悉，該手機APP是由央視原播音員李瑞英播讀每個漢字，此外，它還會解釋漢字的筆畫順序。

Hu Xiaoming, a professor of Chinese language and literature at East China Normal University, said he supported a "reasonable and necessary charge" for the mobile service.

華東師範大學漢語語言文學專業的胡曉明教授表示，他支持該手機服務的“合理、必要的收費”。

"It's a matter of intellectual property. Unlike some online sharing platforms like Wikipedia, Xinhua Dictionary is more authoritative," he said.

他說：“這是一種知識產權。新華字典要比維基百科等在線分享平臺更加權威。”