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Four new color display technologies crowd into e-reader market
January 11, 2010 | 1:10 am
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By Chris Meadows
Found via Slashdot: MIT’s Technology Review has a roundup of four new color display technologies previewed at CES, which will be finding their way into e-readers within the next 1-2 years. The article briefly explains each new technology from Pixel Qi, Qualcomm, Liquavista, and Kent Displays, and also looks at the next generation of e-ink devices.
Most of these new display technologies are capable of displaying full-motion video, which even the new color e-ink displays cannot. This means that e-readers may well converge toward adopting more media-player functionality as well.
"This is the year where you’re going to see some very interesting designs come to market," says Jim Cathey, vice president of business development for Qualcomm MEMS Technologies. "I don’t think they’ll even be called e-readers in the near future." With a myriad of features such as Web access, e-mail, and e-reader programs, these products will be known as smart devices, he says.
It is interesting to note that on the second page, Sri Peruvemba (vice president of marketing at E Ink) gives a very different point of view. According to the article, E Ink will make readers aimed at the educational market, omitting distracting non e-book applications.
"If I give one of these devices to my daughter and I know she’s going to make phone calls on it and surf the Internet on it, I’m not going to be motivated to buy it for her," he says.
Hmm. Sounds like “sour grapes” to me.
Technorati Tags: electrowetting,e-ink,pixel Qi,Qualcomm,Liquavista,Kent Displays,LCD,displays,technology
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Comments:
Maybe. If eInk can roll out color screens, they can display textbooks in color, as they are today. But with the way animation and multimedia is being added to educational materials, the static textbook, even in color, may have a limited future.
On the other hand, multimedia texts would be more costly, and with tight margins in education the way they are, we might not see that kind of innovation for quite some time. So eInk could have plenty of shelf-life left.
Isn’t there enough of this other “media” already? While I can’t speak for ever one, I have zero interest in a portable “media” player — just give me the books. I like the single functionality of my Kindle.
The 6″ form factor on Kindles, Sony, and Nook will be too small to truly utilize pictures and graphics for textbooks which is why color screens for ereaders are moot.
“The 6″ form factor on Kindles, Sony, and Nook will be too small to truly utilize pictures and graphics for textbooks which is why color screens for ereaders are moot.”
While I tend to agree that color isn’t a vital piece of the design, this overstates the case something fierce. You mean no one ever made a book with a useful 3″x4″ color plate? Or even several? I doubt that.
Contrariwise, a well done 3″x4″ b&w illustration, similar to those done for oh, the two or three hundred years before color printing became common, should be fine for most purposes.
Excessive hyperbole is a little much, don’t you think?
Regards,
Jack Tingle
Not sour grapes (regarding the multifunction book reader in the classroom): just practical classroom management. Distracted students are as bad for grades as distracted drivers are to a commute.