[emellaich]

Here is the deal. I'm all about doing what you can now with what you have now. I understand and support the current e-ink devices. However, as compared to what I truly want, they have just as many shortcomings as LCD, just different issues.

I think that the tech at pixelqi.com sounds like the most promising for the future. Mary Lou Jepson is promising high volume and low prices starting this summer. If I had to guess from what she has said in the press I would guess that she will be higher volume than e-ink out of the gate. She has already produced a generation I device for the OLPC at volumes higher than e-ink.

The evidence suggests that her price point will beat e-ink by a wide margin. The OLPC costs $199. She states that her second gen display will be comparable to standard LCD in both volumes and prices.

Her screen tech beats e-ink on every level except for battery life. In that regard she promises battery life five to ten times standard LCD. In one post she quotes battery life of up to 40 hours. I don't know how fast you turn pages, but for me that would be getting awful close to e-ink's 8,000 pages.

Furthermore, I think that current e-book designs are making a mistake. I understand that "thin is in". It certainly looks sexy. However, I've used quite a few of these devices: Palm devices, ebookman, Windows mobile, Cybook Gen 3. I am struck by the comments earlier in this thread about the rocket book's form factor.

The truth is that none of these tiny devices are really comfortable. Anyone who shells out the bucks for a dedicated reader is probably a high volume reader. I don't know if I am typical, but sitting there for hours holding one of these dinky little devices is not comfortable. You have to keep your hands off the screen and keep your fingers on the page advance buttons. I often find my hands tiring out holding these things by their thin edges. A more comfortable approach would be a big round handle - say the size of the cardboard tube from a toilet paper roll (maybe a little smaller). This makes me think of those who like the rocket book.

Now the truth is that, if I'm going to have these meaty handles on the sides, I might as well fill them with something. Maybe something like batteries? OK, that many batteries might be overkill (it might weigh too much). However, the point is that good ergonomics might suggest more space than the current sexy, but uncomfortable razor-blade form factor.

So, if we marry the PixelQi screen with a rocket book size/shape we might have an interesting combination. It sounds like Mary Lou plans to be in this market by the second half of this year. It might be appropriate for Astak to take a look at its product plan for 2nd half of 2009 and 1st half of 2010 and consider PixelQi.

Michael