[fjtorres]

Don't hold your breath.

As we approach the first anniversary of the introduction of the Pearl screens, there are exactly two companies with access to those panels:
- Amazon, which has no trouble getting all the screens they need, even for their ad-and-deals supported model
- Sony which seemingly has no trouble getting all the screens they need as long as they're *not* in a size Amazon uses.

Given that Amazon clearly has first dibs on Pearl screen supplies *and* that they are selling about a million kindles a month and sales are growing as they expand globally, the odds are low that enough 6 or 10 inch Pearl screens will be available for anybody to launch a new pearl-driven product this year.
After all, one would hardly expect eInk to be offering the screens to other vendors while Sony, their number three customer, is facing shortages for their inmet PRS-650 demand.

As to Pocketbook, one could argue they have enough on their plate launching and supporting their existing products without adding a whole new product line. Switching to a Pearl display is *not* a matter of just replacing a Vizplex panel with a Pearl panel, the entire product has to be reengineered.

If you absolutely *must* have a Pearl Screen, get a Kindle and hack it. Last I heard, there are two versions of FBReader running on it. It voids the warranty, of course, but that is as close are you're likely to get to a Pearl-based Pocketbook this year.