badbob001, if you think I'm giving e-ink short shrift, I'm not... it has its advantages, but it also is a dead end. EpaperCentral.com is dedicated to e-paper technologies and advocacy, in their recent analysis of the dominant technology (e-ink), they had this to say:
http://www.epapercentral.com/can-ein...chnologies.htm
Quote:
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Originally Posted by epapercentral
The films on the market at the moment from E Ink are black and white. The real future of e-paper is color. People want moving video, faster refresh rates, cheaper devices with more features, but the first step to most of these is color. The main drawback is that E Ink technology has only been proven for 2 particle systems giving just black and white films.
Even if you could incorporate other colors, a mixture of either red, green, blue, cyan, magenta, yellow, black and white particles would be needed. To get the full color spectrum, at least 3 colors, plus white or black are needed. Recent announcements on color displays use color filters over a black/white display. These look washed out, usually producing pastel shades.
What does this mean for the future of E Ink type devices? They work well now, they have a dominant market share, but the technology does not seem well suited for color applications. The particles and films described above can be found in patents over 10 years old and not much has changed in the patents on the synthesis during this time. Improvements made in the patents are on bistability, switching speeds and lower switching voltages, but the question of full color devices is still open.
Until we see this, electrophoretic displays of this type will always be in a weak position when colored technologies enter the market this year. However, history has shown us that when technologies go head to head it is often a battle won in the marketing departments. If this is to be the case with e-paper, judging by the current market, expect E Ink to be here to stay.
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Like the NYT article and Popular Science article and even this one from e-paper advocacy site, they indicate that there isn't really an eyestrain divide rooted in science, but that marketing and subjective preference rule the day. This is consistent with e-ink not taking off until the Kindle 2 despite existing for a decade prior and consistent with OEMs with a netbook-like ethic looking to exploit heretofore tiny market before it goes extinct.
There are two points couched in this statement, the first is extinction (or at least endangerment) is coming- this is happening to netbooks as UL laptops grow lighter and less expensive and smartphones and smartbooks (and now slates) invade their space by growing more powerful. While the agile companies can still fight in this space, a lot of the big dogs have pulled out (and moved on to slates/smartbooks/etc) because the category is losing meaning and margin (once you start packing in Win7 licenses, etc) to the point that some netbooks are even subsidized (like the Nokia Booklet)!
The second is the notebook ethic, of foreign competition undercutting a market leader after they've expended the money to develop the brand/market. Although embarrassingly scorned earlier in the thread, the OLPC project sold the world on the concept and their upfront investment was what enabled the netbook phenomena to penetrate the brand conscious USA [the PopSci article states this idea as well]. Apple did the same with the iPod (large drive MP3 players existed prior, just no strong branding) and now the iPad (again, PMPs/MIDs exist now, but Americans only buy brands). Once Amazon used an old, existing technology but paired it with the strength of their brand (and Whispernet and pricing), they were able to create a market despite (despite an existing tech; likewise iPad interest gives newfound hope to MID OEMs of relaunching/upgrading their devices now that Apple sold America on the concept). With the market created by the brand, an explosion of foreign e-readers enter, not because of measurable consumer demand, but because it would be foolish for them not to freeride on Amazon's work... the netbook ethic.
More concisely. A fad.
That doesn't mean that e-readers are doomed or wrong or unenjoyable to own. The cream-green spinach displayed Gameplay was obviously going to be phased out, but nonetheless great to own and enjoy. But it does mean it's going to feel the same squeeze of the netbook as multipurpose devices grow lighter, smaller, more powerful, longer lasting, and cheaper [and with better display tech, which again, to me is far from dispositive but apparently a sacred cow for others].