Quote:
Originally Posted by Kule
Large e-ink displayes do exist like presented here:
https://shopkits.eink.com/product-ca...ay-modules/15/
But there are no signs of them coming to the mainstream market. If tablets with large display can find a way to the market, I am sure large e-ink displays are viable option. |
Assumes facts not in evidence.
The reason there are no signs of big eink products coming to market is because there is no market for them to come into. Just because something is technically feasible doesn't make it economically feasible. And big eink isn't.
1- The ebook market is several orders of magnitude smaller than the LCD markets so the R&D costs must be amortized over a much smaller production run, which raises the production unit costs beyond the point where eink's positive attributes can justify it.
2- The primary market for eink is still mass market paperback-replacement ebook readers. Attempts have been made by companies like Sony, Pocketbpok, and others, to expand the tech to other markets with minimal outcomes.
3- The technology is stagmant. Over ten years it has improved its contrast slightly and its resolution by maybe two. The biggest improvement has been in external illumination, rather than the eink itself. And that has come at the expense of battery life. The tech is still very good at what it does but what it does hasn't evolved enough to take it anywhere else against LCD. If anything, eink is losing ground in its home turf--ebook reading-- against phones and dirt cheap tablets.
https://the-digital-reader.com/2019/...xt-five-years/
eInk is a niche tech and by now it's clear it is not going mainstream anywhere else. Sure, somebody might go and do a limited run of a few thousand units of a large panel but by the time the panel ends up in a product the product will likely cost multiple times what an LCD equivalent would.
It's not the tech that's the issue, it's the economics.
LCD holds the high ground of price/performance and that makes it the benchmark other aspirants have to meet. Plasma couldn't. SED couldn't. Mirasol and Liquavista couldn't.
OLED has been given it a try but it's starting to show weaknesses in larger than phone sizes and some of the companies are moving their R&D on to newer LCD and LED evolutions.
eInk isn't even a player anymore.
It's biggest challenge no longer is trying to grow into new markets as much as it is remaining relevant in its own niche.