Have ereader development peaked?

[pdurrant]

Originally Posted by elcreative

The main reason the new display tech takes time is usually due to premature announcement of it... making small samples for demo is relatively easy, ramping up to full scale production with reasonable yields, is another matter altogether...

It's worth remembering that it was ten years from E-Ink the company being founded (1997) to the launch of e-ink based ebook readers (2007).

Qualcomm took over IMOD development and called it Mirasol in 2004. So if we see something this year or next year, they're doing pretty well.

[AprilHare]

I don't think technology is at a standstill.
Moreover, I think it's business that are pulling the brakes.
It's realised: we don't need to provide people fancy displays, they're buying expensive tablets and laptops to read from anyway, why bend over backwards?
That and companies like Borders going under. They were the real pushers for ebook only devices.

[elizilla]

Originally Posted by OtterBooks

Very true. It depends on how long the device is used. Not everyone will dump their ereader for every new generation. Sources I've seen claim that the carbon footprint for an ereader is equal to about 40 books, which I'd say is easily achieved by most ereader customers. But those paper books can also be re-used by multiple people, and more of the materials used to make them are renewable and can be recycled.

The question of ecological impact of paper vs. ebooks is an interesting one with many dimensions. If I weren't so lazy I'd make a thread for discussion.

But when you talk about paper books being re-used by multiple people, how many of them really are? The bookstores get paperbacks, stock them for a short time, then send just the covers back to the publisher to get credited for the unsold ones - those paperbooks never even get used once before they enter the waste stream. At the local recycle center, I have seen whole dumpsters full of books, with covers even, not just the stripcover books dumped by the retail stores. A lot of paper books are used once, just like magazines. Second stop, landfill.

Compare this to e-readers. When we get a new device, if the old one still works, we don't pitch it - we hand it down. If I were to replace my ereader I could give the old one away within a few hours, to someone who would be tickled pink to get it. And since I paid so much for the darn thing, I'd make a special effort to give my castoff to one of these people. Even if one of my readers died, I'm sure it would be valued by a nerdy friend with a soldering iron - it wouldn't get to the landfill for years. I'd say that a much larger percentage of ereaders will make it to the secondhand market, than paper books.

The key to making readers greener is to make them more reliable and durable, and maintain enough scarcity by keeping the price up. Unfortunately for the planet, the tech is probably headed the other way. They're going to get cheaper, more disposable, more common, less prized. But for now? They're not yet highly represented in the waste stream.

What I would not be surprised to see, is a college textbook sold already installed on an ereader. When a textbook costs $150 on paper, the price of a dedicated hardware device to read it on is a much smaller percentage of the cost. They already have MP3 players like this at the library, they are audiobooks with one book on its own device, and no data port. It's like hardware DRM. As the ereader prices come down they will do this with the more expensive ebooks.

[MV64]

Originally Posted by elizilla

But when you talk about paper books being re-used by multiple people, how many of them really are? The bookstores get paperbacks, stock them for a short time, then send just the covers back to the publisher to get credited for the unsold ones - those paperbooks never even get used once before they enter the waste stream. At the local recycle center, I have seen whole dumpsters full of books, with covers even, not just the stripcover books dumped by the retail stores. A lot of paper books are used once, just like magazines. Second stop, landfill.

Compare this to e-readers. When we get a new device, if the old one still works, we don't pitch it - we hand it down. If I were to replace my ereader I could give the old one away within a few hours, to someone who would be tickled pink to get it. And since I paid so much for the darn thing, I'd make a special effort to give my castoff to one of these people. Even if one of my readers died, I'm sure it would be valued by a nerdy friend with a soldering iron - it wouldn't get to the landfill for years. I'd say that a much larger percentage of ereaders will make it to the secondhand market, than paper books.

The key to making readers greener is to make them more reliable and durable, and maintain enough scarcity by keeping the price up. Unfortunately for the planet, the tech is probably headed the other way. They're going to get cheaper, more disposable, more common, less prized. But for now? They're not yet highly represented in the waste stream.

What I would not be surprised to see, is a college textbook sold already installed on an ereader. When a textbook costs $150 on paper, the price of a dedicated hardware device to read it on is a much smaller percentage of the cost. They already have MP3 players like this at the library, they are audiobooks with one book on its own device, and no data port. It's like hardware DRM. As the ereader prices come down they will do this with the more expensive ebooks.

Agreed. This whole argument that e-books are somehow more disposable is a little silly. They can be stored forever and handed out to whoever you wish. DRM can be easily removed with a quick google search. Hand them out to whoever you wish.

As far as the textbooks, they have their own style DRM and I have yet to find anything online on how to remove it, so I don't think textbook companies have to worry about their stuff leaking out, especially if they just allow it to be rented. The few I've used expire after the semester.

[zinj]

Originally Posted by tomsem

What I don't understand is why Qualcomm (leading maker of cell phone components) can't get anyone to use a Mirasol display in their phone ('feature phones', the ones most people still use), even if it's done at a loss initially... Without applications, it's all just R&D down the toilet. I'm sure they have a plan, but it seems like it is taking a very long time to bring this to market, and very unlikely that its first appearance will be on a Kindle.

I agree. I know they've experimented with at least 2 different cell phones. This is potentially a hugh market for them.