E Ink: The market and devices retrospective

[Stuart Young]

Whilst mooching around the web for a story to post, I came across this piece from the Wired Magazine, written way back in March 2001.

Under the agreement, Philips Venture Capital and Philips Components will invest $7.5 million in E Ink to help advance research and development. In return, Philips Components secured exclusive global rights to manufacture and sell handheld devices using E Ink's technology. The companies plan to develop a prototype later this year that they expect to be available to consumers by 2003.

E Ink hopes to use Philips' global reach to seep into the handheld display market, which is expected to exceed $10 billion over the next few years

Many things in the article still hold true, but it makes you realise how long it can take to successfully launch a new device. Even though the iLiad is finally out, iRex held off a major launch until the bulk of the features were ready, and initially only B2B users got to order one. It is however worth pointing out that Sony did manage to bring the Librie to market in 2003, although the official release was limited to Japan.

Original article "E Ink: Your Hands Will Thank You" by Kendra Mayfield available here