The History of eBook device ------To the newcomers

[Rechard]

The summary of eBook device
-------To the newcomers

More than a decade ago, the eBook device had been a hot topic. Even many experts affirmed that the eBook device would be gradually accepted by peoples, and it would be a more important electronic device than mobile phone, everyone would carry one with him or her, even called this device the second revolution of printing.

While unfortunately, during more than ten years development of the eBook device, the companies who deal with the business, many of them emerged and quickly disappeared. Obviously, the prediction of the eReading (screen reading) era isn’t coming.

Let’s look at the development of eBook device, we can divide that into four generations.

The First Generation, Traditional Display

Represented by Gemstar, including Softbook，Roketbook，Hiebook, Eb1150etc, which all adopt the standard LCD. But no matter the STN or TFT, which all cause the eye’s fatigue after long time reading. And the short lifetime of battery and difficult to update the content, all these affect the popularization of the device. The sales volume of these kinds of device is extremely limited. Now all these devices disappear.

The Second Generation, Cholesterol LCD technology
The Cholesterol LCD is also the first generation of ePaper. Sigema book of Panasonic, Hanlin eBook of Jinke and Wenchuan eBook(Sigema book also design by Jinke, Hanlin eBook is made in Tianjin, Wenchuan eBook is made in Taiwan, which are both Chinese companies) all adopt this kind of display. Due to take advantage of the traditional STN technology, it is easy to be produced. But because of the shortages the slow displaying speed, green displaying background and the angle limitation, this kind of device is not popularly accepted. Panasonic only sold 4000 pcs, only Jinke sold more than 100k pcs. Now this production line is stopped. Only French Nemoptic and Japan Fujistu still devote to the development and improvement of this technology.

The Third Generation, ePaper display technology
Under the cooperation of Philips，Sony，Topan, the e Ink technology finally can be put into mass production, which make the Sony LIBRIe to come out. But Sony LIBRIe only sold 9000 pcs. After that, Jinke released the Hanlin V8. As Philips adjusted its business direction, it sold ePaper technology to Taiwan’s PVI Company. PVI is in charge of producing this kind of display.

Apparently, EINK technology is more acceptable, besides SONY and Jinke releasing the new generation device, which adopt the eInk technology, there are many companies also joining into this business. Although the market condition is better than the status of a decade ago, the breaking out signal of the business don’t apparently appear.

Except for E ink, Sipix and Brigestone also release their new generation ePaper display technology, but until now these products haven’t been in mass production.

The Fourth Generation, Color and Flexible display
E ink is still continuing to make effort on the development of the color and flexible display, even the global biggest display manufacturer LG-Philips also join in the production of EINK display. Although the sample of the color and flexible display is on the show, it still needs to take 2-3 years to realize the mass production.

The Various eBook reader device in Current Market

1.Iliad
The Iliad is released by Irex company, which is established by some R&D staffs who previously worked for Philips on the ePaper technology. It integrates the sensor of Wacom and Wifi, and provides free SDK. Now it is applied in newspapers and books industries. But the sales circs is not optimistic; the main reasons are high price, short lifetime of battery. Its OEM brand is eFlyBook.
2.Sony PRS-500
This is the second model eReader released by Sony, the OS and hardware adopted is totally different from LIBRIe. And its openness is also improved. This model is only sold in USA. It supports DRM, Sony expects to make profits from selling the content, the sales circs is normal, until now the sales volume is within 50000 pcs.

3. Hanlin V Series
The Hanlin V Series are all based on E ink, it support DRM, and some models are only sold in Chinese market. It has higher openness and advantages on format supporting and hardware technology, and the SDK is free. Current sales volume is 50000 pcs or so, which includes the OEM brand Lbook（Ukrain），WalkBook（France），Ubitreader（Turkey） .
4. PVI OEM
In order to promote the sales of eInk display, PVI provides a reference design and appearance, currently the Starebook， Nuut， Bookeen Cybook all adopt this reference design. It is a pity that they don’t have strong technical strength, which cause the software update is very slow and the hardware also has the obvious shortage.
5. Amazon Kindle
Amazon originally planed to release the Kindle by the end of 2006, but due to the market factors，they continue to adjust the plan, and the appearance of the Kindle are changed many times which is not the same looking as its initial releasing. It is expected to be sold in American market before Christmas holiday. Its main features are wireless communication and online reading and buying.


Current Limitations
1. Format
Currently each eBook device manufacturer has its own private format, which can not be used among the different edevice. No doubt that will hurt the usage of the device. Although the IPDF proposes the OEB standard, only a few manufacturers adopt that.
2. Price
The price of the device is still high, only continue to reduce the retail price like the business of mobile phone, the future price can be within $150.
3. Display
Now all the displays are based on glass, which is fragile. And it is in black and white. Today is the color era, people hope to see the color ePaper, and the flexible feature is also necessary.
4. Content
We all hope that the eBook reader device can read the content in any format, not only the open format, but also the DRM format. The publishers also worry about that it will affect the sales of paper books. They all wait and see. Today is the digital era; we hope we can easily get more content.

What does the eBook device look like in the future? Of course I have my own idea, and I know that each one of you has the different idea, but we will towards the same direction, let’s expect the explosion of the ePaper revolution.

[TadW]

Rechard, great summary. It would be a great entry for the Wiki.

[grimo1re]

Nice, short, to the point.

[DaleDe]

Originally Posted by TadW

Rechard, great summary. It would be a great entry for the Wiki.

It would be even better if it were true. The ebook Technologies eb1150 is still available for example. And any discussion should include the role of PDA's in ebook proliferation. For example the dominant format standard today is mobipocket which cut its teeth on PDA's.

Dale

[JSWolf]

Bump!

[IceHand]

Originally Posted by Rechard

4. PVI OEM
In order to promote the sales of eInk display, PVI provides a reference design and appearance, currently the Starebook， Nuut， Bookeen Cybook all adopt this reference design. It is a pity that they don’t have strong technical strength, which cause the software update is very slow and the hardware also has the obvious shortage.

What do you mean by that? (bold text)