Charbax has come through with another insightful interview with E Ink’s Sriram Peruvemba at this year’s CES. The video is seventeen minutes long and goes into detail about the future of E Ink and shows some new uses for electrophoretic displays.
Among the highlights is a new high-resolution monochrome screen with 300 dpi. E Ink is working with Epson to design a driver capable of running it. They also show the new color E Ink ereader, the jetBook Color, which is already available in Russia and is expected to start shipping in the US at anytime now.
Some of the other applications for E Ink include signage for adverting, wrist watches, low-power displays for power tools, and more. What interesting is a large one pixel color display with no backlight that appears much brighter and more colorful than the small pixels used for ereader displays. It makes it look like it is using a backlight but it’s not; it’s just able to reflect more ambient light with the larger size.
Last year at CES, Charbax posted a twenty minute interview with E Ink’s Sriram Peruvemba. It’s interesting looking back on it a year later. They’ve got color E Ink devices available commercially now, but not a whole lot else has changed. Hopefully by at CES 2013 they be able to have the high-resolution screens available and a whole lot more.
Nathan, the 300 dpi display could be a real breakthrough, even before color. The jetbook color display looked like grey scale to me on the video, so I don’t think people will buy color when they see it.
Just imagine if someone like Sony did a large screen (11 inch diagonal) 300 dpi, Android based with some extra apps to support contacts, tasks and calendar with appointments that could be synced with Microsoft Outlook and price it at $279, then you’d have a Kindle Killer. This kind of an e-reader would sell at the iPad type of volume.
Sorry to say, but I think the heyday of E Ink e-readers is over. That’s why E Ink is looking at “signage for adverting, wrist watches, low-power displays for power tools, and more.”
B&N has reported that while “NOOK Tablet … has exceeded expectations, the Company over-anticipated the growth in consumer demand for single purpose black-and-white reading devices this holiday.”
Ref: http://www.barnesandnobleinc.com/press_releases/2012_01_05_2011_holiday_sales.html
I don’t think this is a B&N thing. Most people seem to want color multi-media devices (tablets), not B&W e-readers.
I’m a big fan of Charbax for some time and subscribe to his Youtube site.
It cracked me up when he fiddling around changed the tablet’s screen from Russian to the tablet’s menu and they had to have someone off screen to change it back. He really gets down to the nitty gritty with his interviews.
B&W e-ink I like for heavy duty reading. My eyes are old and can’t handle alot of backlit reading, no matter anti-glare, dimming and other color backgrounds. The eyes go bleary. So I hope e-ink devices won’t be discontinued. There are a good many readers who prefer e-ink. If I want media I do it on the laptop and sometimes on the iPod Touch.
Me too, Barb. I LOVE my Nook Touch simply because the text is so much clearer and easier on the eyes than a backlit screen. I’ve rediscovered the simple pleasure of reading with it, and hope e-ink readers will be here to stay. I’d love to see e-ink color devices even if the color isn’t as vivid as a tablet.