Quote:
Originally Posted by Alisa
While I would be really excited to have one of these, I'm quite surprised that the Qualcomm rep would be so indiscreet. If people know there may be color Kindles in a matter of months, many will likely skip the Kindle 2 or DX. That could leave them with quite a bit of stock on hand. I wonder if this means we'll see a big price drop coming to clear out old inventory. Of course, lots of people get their noses out of joint when they buy something and the new model comes out shortly after.
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I'd place it at a lot more than a matter of months.
Mirasol is new technology. Qualcomm has to ramp up from prototype to volume production, which will happen
after they have sufficient design wins to justify the investment, and Amazon and whoever else will have to design devices to use them, and get sufficient displays from Qualcomm to ramp up for volume production.
This is
not a quick process. Right now, you can assume Qualcomm is sampling evaluation display units to interested parties. I'd call "end of 2010" the time when we would start seeing these available.
Anyone holding off on a Kindle 2 or DX purchase because they'd prefer a color device using this should not hold their breath. And since there is certain to be a price premium attached, you can assume a lot of users will decide black and white is sufficient for their purposes.
If Mirasol lives up to the hype, it will find uses in applications far beyond ereaders, but it won't happen tomorrow.
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Dennis