[SnowRipple]

I am following the e-ink devices and their evolution for many years now as many people here. And it makes me angry. Really angry.

E-ink is no doubt a revolutionary technology. It has a potential of replacing the paper and LCD/backlighted devices for a number of applications. Reading, writing, making notes, notes management etc.

But the pace in which e-readers are developed is so SLOW!

I had to wait years for a e-reader with decent pdf handling, then years for an e-reader with bigger screen and touchscreen, then big screen,touch and frontlight, now I have to wait years for an e-reader I could use as a secondary screen with decent refresh rate. I won't even mention color e-ink or flexible newspaper-like ereaders that we are teased with for so many years!

I wonder where lies the problem. In the same time, phones, tablets, and computers accomplished so much more! Every year some revolution happens, lately even smartwatches are evolving in the faster pace that e-ink devices!

I know, many people will say that e-ink market is so much smaller but I disagree! After all e-ink has potential to replace paper for so many tasks! This is a HUGE market!

There are quite many companies out there right now that produce e-readers but all of them are so similar to each other. I can't think about anything revolutionary happening in the e-ink community in 2016...A little better processor, better look, more RAM - it's not revolution, barely evolution.

In my opinion, one of the reasons is that none of the big companies are currently involved in this market. Yes, you think about Amazon. Oh, couple years ago when Amazon released Kindle DX, frontligt, touch - these were revolutions! But lately, Kindle Voyage and Oasis, are not revolutionary in any sense: more fashionable build, little better processor, RAM and ridiculuos price tags.

If you bought first Paperwhite you are not really convinced to update it to newer version, because you won't get much extra for your money. It seems to me that Amazon assumed that they achieved everything that can be achieved here and are like Apple with their iphones - just brushing some details every year.

But the biggest culprint for me is E-ink Company. It seems like the completely gave up on research! Across so many years we go only 3 iterations of e-ink :Pearl, Carta, Mobius - that's not enough! What happpened with Color E-ink (Triton) that we were teased with every major conference! They latest idea: 42'' display that can be used instead a white board for thousands of dollars (in collaboration with QuirkLogic). I can already see these queues before shops to get them.. Yet another product that will be forgotten in couple months..

What is the main reason of e-ink not being popular? The ridiculuos prizes of e-ink screens. The big chunk (if not the biggest) of each e-reader is the prize of the screen. Did E-ink Company did anything to lower the cost od manufacturing them? Obviously, they didn't do enough! They will never replace paper if they will costs couple hundreds dollars per each screen!

Maybe the best symbol of the whole situation is the story of IMX7 processor that's optimized for e-ink devices. According to various sources it will remove ghosting and drastically improve the refresh rate - a real revolution. Th first time I heard about it was in the fall 2015. Now we have approaching spring 2017 and... not even a single rumor that we will see an e-reader with IMX7 anytime soon... Yes, it takes years to incorporate a new processor in a e-reader...This is ridiculous!

I don't see any signs that the situation will change in the future. And it makes me angry, really angry..