So guys, here are some news from CeBIT to the future of Boox.
During CeBIT, I had long conversations with the CEO of Onyx Ms. Kim.
She proved to be a very pleasant conversation partner, completely open and accommodating, concerning our wishes and reports. She also talked a lot about her plans for future developments, listened attentively to my comments, and made detailed notes.
Some plans were even changed in real time.
This, for example, concerns Onyx's plans for successors of 10.3" series with glass screens. As is known, with regard to screens, two out of three options have so far been implemented (capacitive touch screen for finger control, inductive digitizer for pen input, and built-in adjustable front light). It was initially planned to go the same way on the 10.3" projects with glass screens, but in my opinion we should definitely offer all three options in one device. Since this would increase the thickness of the device by about 0.5-0.7mm, Ms. Kim was of the opinion that it might not look so good after all. The trend in the devices seems to be to make them as thin as possible. After a long discussion I have managed to convince her, that functionality in professional equipment is primarily about beauty. Thus, we hope to be able to offer a new professional device with the unique equipment (three out of three) relatively soon.
If there are any interesting ideas, please share.
Great news is also that Onyx recently hired a very experienced product designer. New designs correspond to the most modern top level in appearance and functionality. One wonders how much technology fits in such a narrow case.
Also in the 8" range, there will soon be a successor to the very successful i86. Tools for housing are already completed and production will start soon. This looks very chic indeed (like a little brother of Note)! Lightweight and thin. Unfortunately, no pen input is currently planned for this series.
We also talked about the devices with 10.7 "EINK color screens and built-in front light. These have been used in primary schools in China for about a year as part of an educational test project. Over 100,000 of these devices have been built so far. Unfortunately, the price of these devices is currently too high (even higher than the price of Max2), so it is initially not available in the form for the Western market. The actual problem was, for the software development for this project had been assigned about100 Onyx software engineers for several months, so we've had shortages of resources for our own projects lately. Now this project is finally completed and all resources are available again. This also promises faster processing of slightly accumulated task lists from our customers.
Another aspect of our discussions was the openness of the Boox software and the more exact adaptation of apps and functionality to the needs and expectations of our customers.
Onyx would be very interested in working with experienced developers. The source codes, technical information and instruments are available upon request. They are now also recruiting among western developers. Therefore, if anyone is interested - please contact us.
There is not much to report on CeBIT 2018 itself. Visitor numbers were far below expectations. Apart from Onyx, I have not seen any other e-reader manufacturers. It was probably the last CeBIT participation of Onyx. In Germany, it now will be set at the Frankfurt Book Fair.
