Display 2008: E-Paper in "57 flavor-packed varieties" / FLEPia still pricy

[Alexander Turcic]

Over in the land of the rising sun, visitors of the Display 2008 Expo this week have a chance to marvel at the latest advances in e-paper technologies. TechRadar's Mark Lytle reports about a plethora of new e-paper panels by manufacturers like PVI. He also chatted with a Fujitsu Frontech representative about their much-hyped FLEPia device (which has a color screen based on cholesteric LCD layers).

According to Utsumi Kiyoshi, retail director at Fujitsu Frontech, there has been one major hurdle all along. He told us: "Cost is still a problem – we can deliver samples of the 8-inch FLEPia, but that still costs ¥200,000 for two (£1,000). We aim to get that down to ¥40,000 (£200) each by the time we actually sell it."

Sounds like a catch-22 situation. People won't buy that thing before its price goes down; the price won't go down unless more people will buy it.

Btw, Mark, it's not the "Sony Libirie e-book", but probably the Sony Portable Reader you've seen on the expo.

Related: PVI to double E Ink panel capacity - will it help to meet Kindle demand?

[godidog]

Originally Posted by Alexander Turcic

Sounds like a catch-22 situation. People won't buy that thing before its price goes down; the price won't go down unless more people will buy it.

I suspect that is incorrect: I think the price will go down as they improve the manufacturing processes; nothing to do with people buying it, but to do with yields.

Very exciting tech, especially if it can be made bezel-free.

[NatCh]

Originally Posted by godidog

I suspect that is incorrect: I think the price will go down as they improve the manufacturing processes; nothing to do with people buying it, but to do with yields.

I rather suspect they will have little motivation to improve the manufacturing processes unless people buy the stuff they're making now. They have to pay the bills somehow, after all.

[Steven Lyle Jordan]

It used to be that when companies were in that Catch-22 situation, they speculated on the market and moved ahead with production. If they lost, they might go out of business... or they might just take it as a business-related loss. But manufacturers were brave enough to take a chance.

Those were the days, eh?

[seamusfp]

There is a distinction that needs to be made between E Ink Vizplex, and Fujitsu FLEPia, the really high costs quoted in the OP are for FLEPia, which isn't being mass produced at all, it is still in "The Lab", and likely requires a great deal of R&D, NRE, and invention to bring the costs down before anyone can buy the thing.

Meanwhile, the current cost of a Vizplex device is ~£200 ($1= £0.50551006,as of this post, so £200 is $400). people are buying the PRS-505, Kindle, Bookeen, Iliad, etc, and that is likely to drive yield improvements, larger production, and other economies of scale for E Ink Vizplex driving that price lower eventually.

(granted, the FLEPia is color and the Kindle is not, but E Ink has color in "The Lab" as well...)

[Alisa]

I think they're talking about the price of the screen component, not whole devices. The current 6" Viziplex is around $150-$200 from what I've heard around here. I'm no expert. Of course they're talking about 8" screens. I have no idea what an 8" Viziplex goes for.