Ars Technica: The e-book wars of 2010

[wallcraft]

Ars has an article, The e-book wars of 2010: displays and hardware, penned from CES. I am sceptical about low-cost hardware this year but Jon Stokes makes some good points, including:

Both the Skiff and the Plastic Logic QUE were incredibly thin—about quarter of an inch or less. This thinness is made possible in part by the fact that both have flexible display substrates—Skiff's uses a foil substrate developed by LG, while Plastic Logic's uses a plastic substrate developed in-house. Both of these make for flexible displays, but of the two only the Skiff itself is physically flexible (you can actually bend the device a bit and it doesn't hurt it).

I got a close-up look at Qualcomm's Mirasol, MEMS-based technology that I mentioned in my CES preview article. A Qualcomm rep showed me a static screen with a color picture on it, and I have to admit to being pretty disappointed.

I saw the screen in some good light, but color saturation was just too poor; the dpi also seemed quite low. It sort of looked like an old-timey lithograph; if the unit had featured not a magazine cover but a Union soldier holding a rifle, it would've been a dead ringer for a piece of Civil War memorabilia. OK, that's an exaggeration, but it did look unexpectedly dim and metallic.

[nrapallo]

Thanks for the link, wallcraft!

I now hold hope that 2010 might be the year that the size and color barriers are truly "broken"... that is, viewing Letter/A4 sized .pdf's in brilliant color!

[Kali Yuga]

As usual, "meh."

I do concur that the reader space is practically in a "quantum foam" stage, but I also expect that's going to shake out very quickly. I also have an odd feeling this will actually help the market leaders (Sony, B&N and especially Amazon) as they have brand recognition, teams that can execute, etc.

And of course, we have the obligatory geek jab at single-purposed devices. At least he didn't parrot the "when Apple puts out their combination tablet and automatic flosser, it's game over."

Too bad about color eInk and Mirasol. I'd rather see good color tech come out in a longer time frame than crappy color in a rush.

[kjk]

Originally Posted by Kali Yuga

As usual, "meh."
I also have an odd feeling this will actually help the market leaders (Sony, B&N and especially Amazon) as they have brand recognition, teams that can execute, etc.

Definitely. All these new entrants and overall buzz is really helping to legitimize the market...but that won't help 90% of them in the long run-it will really favor the strongest established ecosystems.

[Barcey]

I found this statement interesting...

As far as contrast goes, Plastic Logic's screen definitely looks better than my Kindle DX

I wasn't expecting the screen quality to be as good on the Plastic Logic.