E Ink says it may launch color e-paper next year

Alexander Turcic · 04-05-2007, 09:37 PM

We got our crystal ball out of its magic cupboard to tell you that color e-paper may just be around the corner. Well, actually, we read the following in a Reuters news item:

Quote:

Wilcox [E Ink president] said E Ink, whose revenues have grown at a rate of 200 to 300 percent annually in the last three years, is testing a color prototype that could be launched next year, potentially opening the technology to e-magazines and e-newspapers.

Before we get all too excited, let's remind ourselves that this is not the first color e-paper was announced with great fanfare. In 2005, E Ink demonstrated the prototype of an e-paper display with 12-bit color in a 400x300 pixel format, and at that time, they believed to start mass production in late 2006. We anticipated breathlessly, blogged about furiously, and drooled over mightily. Then... nothing. It's all we can do, sit and wait and hope that at least next year is going to be a sweet surprise.

Btw, the article is also quoting Sony Reader product manager David Seperson:

Quote:

"More and more things are going online from Amazon and others," said David Seperson, a product manager of Sony's Reader. "We're seeing real growth in digital text. Also there is a potential shift in what people would consider reading. It used to be mainly books. Now there are blogs. And there's all kinds of Internet things which will work well because you can take that stuff off the computer screen, and take it with you to the beach and start reading."

Related: Color iRex iLiad in 2007, Where is the color E Ink that was promised to us?

Hadrien · 04-05-2007, 10:41 PM

Do we have any specs regarding those new prototypes ? Resolution, color depth, refresh time etc...

Last time we had any information regarding color e-ink, it was more suited for a lab than a real product.

Bob Russell · 04-06-2007, 12:22 PM

Seems to have been picked up by ComputerWorld also!

scotty1024 · 04-06-2007, 04:48 PM

Most of your ebooks will continue to rely heavily of black ink for their text. Color will by comparison be lightly used. To evaluate a color ebook e-ink panel I suggest you will want to see a full page of black 14pt text and a full page color image of a human face from top of eyebrows to the bottom of the chin.

If they won't show them, the panel isn't real yet (e.g. I'm not impressed by the flag example shown)

04-05-2007, 10:41 PM	#2
Hadrien Feedbooks.com Co-Founder Posts: 2,258 Karma: 6515 Join Date: Nov 2006 Location: Paris, France Device: Sony PRS-300/500/505/600/700, iPhone, Cybook Gen 3, iLiad	Do we have any specs regarding those new prototypes ? Resolution, color depth, refresh time etc... Last time we had any information regarding color e-ink, it was more suited for a lab than a real product. __________________ FeedBooks: Public Domain Books, original books and RSS feeds for mobile devices (Mobile Edition) Kindle owners: Find out the easiest way to get public domain books on your device

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04-06-2007, 12:22 PM	#3
Bob Russell MobileRead Editor Posts: 4,923 Karma: 24061 Join Date: May 2004 Location: Pittsburgh, PA Device: Sony PRS500, Treo 700p, Dell x50v, Lenovo X61t	Seems to have been picked up by ComputerWorld also!

04-06-2007, 04:48 PM	#4
scotty1024 Banned Posts: 1,300 Karma: 1479 Join Date: Jul 2006 Location: Peoples Republic of Washington Device: Reader / iPhone / Librie / Kindle	Most of your ebooks will continue to rely heavily of black ink for their text. Color will by comparison be lightly used. To evaluate a color ebook e-ink panel I suggest you will want to see a full page of black 14pt text and a full page color image of a human face from top of eyebrows to the bottom of the chin. If they won't show them, the panel isn't real yet (e.g. I'm not impressed by the flag example shown)