by Marc
2. September 2008 15:37
E-Ink technology has progressed from the lab into consumer products, but it's still a pretty niche item - even though it's been around for a few years most people probably haven't heard of it. One common use is as secondary screens in mobile phones but it has also spawned a whole new product category in Ebook readers and I think this is what will bring it to people's attention.
Ebook readers are essentially mobile libraries that hold hundreds of books in a tablet the size of an A5 notepad. The Sony PRS-505 is probably the most mainstream of these, but there are other devices available from a variety of manufacturers.
E-Ink / E-Paper has two defining characteristcs that make it uniquely suited for a book reader:
- It can be read in bright sunlight, just like normal paper.
- It draws no power while displaying a static image, it only uses power to change the displa. This means battery life can be extended to weeks of regular use.
These properties also carry two large downsides:
- It's monochrome only.
- Refreshing a whole page takes a *long* time - seconds or at best milliseconds, rather than the nanoseconds conventional LCD screens require.
This diagram shows the make up of an e-ink display (lifted directly from E-Ink's website, hopefully they won't mind)
If they could make it colour and faster refreshing they'd change the world with it, but I can't see it. Colour possibly but I suspect the refresh speed is an inherent consequence of the design (I'd love to be proved wrong though).
So what do I reckon - will it sink or swim? Well it's not going to sink, as it's in production already and new devices keep popping up. The question is will it get any more traction? I think it'll go places. It won't replace your TV, but I have a feeling that ebook readers will become big business and they'll take e-ink with them.