Electronic book readers (EBR) have become part of our lives and there seems to be no end of new product announcements. What was an innovators dream ("look it is almost like real paper") has become an electronic companies’ sweetheart. But with the debut of the iPad, the paradigm has shifted again and the future of the EBR has become a topic of discussion on all the e-reader websites. Some of them declare the EBR already dead and others see no room for the tablet in this world. As always the world is not black and white and has more than the 8 - 16 gray levels typical reproduced by the electrophoretic displays in use today. Here are some of the latest news and trends for these devices.

Norbert Hildebrand
Insight Media Analyst

On the display front the main news is coming from the current market leaders and future contenders:

• SiPix chairman resigns
• E-Ink shows newest display development (and puts its fist down-literally)
• Merck and Plastic Logic develop next generation organic semiconductors

The continued display production issues at AUO in the acquired SiPix division might have finally caught up with Chairman Liu Chunting as he is leaving the company, the latest news release mentions that Andrew Tseng will stay on as president. Former AUO EVP Dr. Hui Hsiung will take over as chairman for SiPix Imaging at a time where the material issues are behind them and production should return to normal by this summer (so they say). It seems to be much harder to make electrophoretic displays than many might think.

Engadget had a chance to interview Sriram Peruvemba (see the picture on the side) where he showed the latest product development from PVI / E-Ink. The rigid display offers an improved contrast ratio of 12:1 (up from 7:1 today) and display speed allowing some simple animations (no more specifics were given). He also showed a slightly flexible version of the E-Ink display that adds a degree of robustness to the display normally not found in any light weight display technology today. While the demonstration seems to be a little dramatic, he certainly made his point.

The market seems also to inspire large companies like Merck to invest time and money into the development of next generation organic semiconductor materials in support of Plastic Logics operation. By 2011 newly developed high performance materials should give Plastic Logic a much needed boost for their all plastic display technology.

In EBR devices, there was additional news such as:

• Fujitsu demos slim color e-reader (next generation FLEPIA)
• Paradigm Shift Sourcing and Manufacturing Co. announces $130 EBR
• The WePad
• The BenQ color reader

Fujitsu has shown a slim prototype of a color EBR, which seems to be a next generation FLEPIA. With a color display based on the Kent Display technology, it was ahead of its competition when it was introduced last year even though at a very steep price point. Let’s see if the second generation can increase the lead from a technology point of view and lower the price point.

Earlier this month Paradigm Shift Sourcing and Manufacturing Co. Ltd announced the world’s most affordable 5" EBR at a price point of $130. While this sounds like the typical selling of price to gain market share quickly, the interesting part is in the fine print. Following on the footsteps of the Apple iPad, the device actually sports a full color LCD display and should ship by the end of May. This could very well create a flood of other LCD equipped EBRs taking advantage of the typically lower cost LCD displays. While there is mention of better contrast and longer battery life, no specific numbers were provided and outdoor reading should still be difficult at best.

One example of the many tablet introductions comes from my old home country Germany. The WePad was announced some weeks ago in Germany and more details were provided about the initial pricing (449 Euros for the 16GB version) and an anticipated shipping date this summer. Why do I pick this one? There is some speculation that the promotion and push to bring this product to market was supported strongly by the largest publishing group in Germany. Interestingly this support came after Apple decided to pull their largest magazine app from the iTunes store, because of ‘indecent’ content late in 2009. This was seen by many as a form of censorship causing a strong opposing reaction. This raises a very interesting question: How will the wide international distribution of content via e-book and app stores cope with local laws and feeling of what is acceptable and what not? Beside the legal questions that will feed many lawyers in the coming years the involved moral questions could easily influence the market penetration and potential success of e-reading as such.

IT Chuiko has published a short note that BenQ plans to release a new E-Ink based EBR with a color display later this year. While E-Ink has shown color filter based prototypes for quite some time, this would be the first production product using this technology. We are looking forward to learn if this turns out to be true.

Finally, we have to wonder if the paperless future is as green as we think. So far green publishing was viewed as methods in reducing tree use, which was appreciated by the environmental activists around the planet. Now, an article by GreenBiz indicates some hesitation if this perceived greenness is real or not. Based on a report by the U.S. Department of Energy the electricity used by data centers (for cloud computing and data delivery) has doubled from 2000 to 2006 and could double again by 2011. In an effort to counteract this development the EPA and DoE are pushing for energy efficiency standards to promote an Energy Star program for data centers. As GreenBiz points out, without a standardized life cycle analysis, including the life cycle cost to produce all those e-readers, claims of greenness will lead to heated discussions. While there are several approaches to such analysis, no consensus has yet been reached on how to do this. And may I add, the cost (in terms of time and resources) of doing such analysis has to be included in the overall view of effectiveness. We will keep our eye on this one for you.

Reply to the author