Thread: eInk readers dying before they spread?
View Single Post
Old 06-08-2009, 11:23 PM   #12
Boston
Fanatic
Boston writes the songs that make the whole world sing.Boston writes the songs that make the whole world sing.Boston writes the songs that make the whole world sing.Boston writes the songs that make the whole world sing.Boston writes the songs that make the whole world sing.Boston writes the songs that make the whole world sing.Boston writes the songs that make the whole world sing.Boston writes the songs that make the whole world sing.Boston writes the songs that make the whole world sing.Boston writes the songs that make the whole world sing.Boston writes the songs that make the whole world sing.
 
Posts: 555
Karma: 40032
Join Date: Oct 2008
Location: Boston :)
Device: Kindle, Kobo Aura H20, Pixel XL
These thoughts were probably posted elsewhere and nothing new...but the Boston Globe posted this blog which I found interesting and suggests how E Ink Corp's recent move may suggest they are questioning the technology's future.

http://www.boston.com/business/artic...is_taking_off/

Quote:
Why sell a rising star? Cambridge-based E Ink Corp. said last Monday that it was being acquired by a big Taiwanese display maker. E Ink, a spinout from MIT's Media Lab, makes the screens for the Amazon Kindle and many other e-book devices. David Weinberger, a Brookline author and blogger, wondered why.

E Ink is on a roll in a market that is about to explode (in the good sense). After 10 years of work developing a low-power, highly legible display, it's got something that works. Thanks to Kindle, it's proven itself in the mass market and it's in lots of people's hands. And the market is about to take off now that we have digital delivery systems, a new generation of hardware, and a huge disruption in the traditional publishing market. So, why would E Ink sell itself? The price - $215 million - seems relatively low for such a hot product. [E Ink had raised more than $150 million from investors.] If they need the money to fund R&D or to build manufacturing facilities, surely there were other possibilities. Apparently the market crisis made an IPO implausible, although, to tell the truth, I - with my weak financial grasp - am not convinced. Perhaps [E Ink and its investors] have reason to think the market is not going to take off, but that seems wrong. . . . Or maybe they have doubts about E Ink technology. Maybe they worry the cost won't drop fast enough for a commoditized market. Maybe color isn't on its way fast enough. Maybe they're worried about the inability (or so I'm presuming) of their tech ever to handle video, since the winning e-reader will eventually be multimedia. Maybe they know about [other e-book devices] on the way - Apple iPad or whatever the presumed product will be called - that will make static, black-on-gray pages seem obsolete.

www.hyperorg.com/blogger
Boston is offline   Reply With Quote