Amazon/Liquavista Hiring Process Engineers

[ShellShock]

Originally Posted by DiapDealer

I was shooting for heavily sarcastic.

That's a relief!

[Nate the great]

Originally Posted by HarryT

Interesting - thanks for posting that! The transition from R&D to commercial production tends to be the point at which many products come unstuck. Remember plastic-substrate eInk screens? They have been promised since 2009, and we still don't have them in commercial production.

One or 2 of the newer E-ink watches have a Moebius screen. Also, according to the signs I saw at CES this iPhone case has a 3.5" Moebius screen:
http://www.inkcase.com/en.html

[Nate the great]

Originally Posted by pdurrant

Amazon bought Liquavista from Samsung last March, so they've had the company for nearly a year now. I was just looking for news, and I came across some interesting job ads from Liquavista that were posted in the past month:

Operations Program Manager (Asia based)
Process Quality Engineer
Product Test Engineer
Process Development Engineer
Product Development Manager

and several others.

It looks to me like Liquavista think that the basic R&D is done, and that now they are moving towards mass production for a mass market product.

I have no idea how long a ramp up to volume production takes. I suppose they might just manage it in time for a product launch this Autumn.

But I'd be very surprised if we didn't see a Kindle using a Liquavista electro-wetting display by the end of 2015.

One problem with concluding that this shows a production focus is that Liquavista was never going to produce their own screens. That was always going to be farmed out to an LCD manufacturer. Also, a lot of the jobs listed on that careers page explicitly mention R&D in either the description or the title.

[pdurrant]

Originally Posted by Nate the great

One problem with concluding that this shows a production focus is that Liquavista was never going to produce their own screens. That was always going to be farmed out to an LCD manufacturer.

I agree that Liquavista are going to be making arrangements with an existing factory. That's why I find the Operations Program Manager (Asia based) vacancy so interesting.

[Greg Anos]

Gives us something to look forward to...or at least to talk about.

[Nate the great]

Originally Posted by pdurrant

I agree that Liquavista are going to be making arrangements with an existing factory. That's why I find the Operations Program Manager (Asia based) vacancy so interesting.

That one might suggest production, yes, but on what scale?

I head back from an industry contact last night and he pointed out that most of these jobs are located in Eindhoven, where Liquavista has a research facility. That does not point to production:
http://www.the-digital-reader.com/20...ed-production/

[Greg Anos]

Originally Posted by Nate the great

That one might suggest production, yes, but on what scale?

I head back from an industry contact last night and he pointed out that most of these jobs are located in Eindhoven, where Liquavista has a research facility. That does not point to production:
http://www.the-digital-reader.com/20...ed-production/

Even so, Nate, it implied that the technology is still under active development. That's at least something...

[Rizla]

This type of tech is the holy grail for tablet makers. They won't stop innovating.

I wonder how it compares to e-ink for reading clarity.

[Barty]

I'm skeptical of liquidvista because, if it's so good, why did Samsung sell it? You'd think they want to keep new and promising display techs for themselves.

But it's good to know amazon is doing something with it. Sometimes companies acquire stuff only to let them languish and die.

[TechniSol]

Maybe Samsung had everything but the secret sauce or the right cooks... or Amazon had the money to pursue it and Samsung needed the cash. Maybe Samsung is more concerned with larger displays like the HDTV biz, or maybe it just made more sense for someone looking to acquire the missing pieces to produce a vertically integrated product. Amazon has deep pockets and Bezos seems like a risk taker unafraid to produce a loss leader if it means capturing a huge residual sales market to make a lot more a little farther down the road.

I'm just guessing, anybody follow Amazon and Samsung more closely?

[Nate the great]

Originally Posted by Barty

I'm skeptical of liquidvista because, if it's so good, why did Samsung sell it? You'd think they want to keep new and promising display techs for themselves.

But it's good to know amazon is doing something with it. Sometimes companies acquire stuff only to let them languish and die.

No one really knows, but my theory is that Samsung has to make screens as pretty as Apple's. That has turned out to be more important than battery life, so Samsung didn't have any reason to keep Liquavista.

[Kralik]

Perhaps Samsung is more focused on developing their flexible AMOLED screens?

[mge]

Originally Posted by pdurrant

But with Sony retrenching, I suppose it'll need someone else to bring it to market.

What do you mean by "Sony retrenching"? Any news I've missed?

[pdurrant]

Originally Posted by mge

What do you mean by "Sony retrenching"? Any news I've missed?

Sony are completely withdrawing from the US market for eReaders and ebook store. Whether they'll keep the other international sales and stores, or even their domestic sales and stores is anyone's guess.

[mge]

Originally Posted by pdurrant

Sony are completely withdrawing from the US market for eReaders and ebook store. Whether they'll keep the other international sales and stores, or even their domestic sales and stores is anyone's guess.

Thank's. I somehow misunderstood the first quote - thought you meant they where backing out from the e-ink mobius display with regard to the Sony dpt-s1 13.3''