China's Hanwang is currently using 5" E Ink displays (made by PVI) for their e-readers. They have now started to use AUO's panels (9" ones) for future products in 2010.
Hanwang hopes to sell over 500,000 e-readers in 2009, and over a million in 2010.
Taiwan's Industrial Technology Research Institute (ITRI) showed off a few flexible e-paper prototypes. One of these is a color e-reader touchscreen display. It's a Ch-LCD (cholesteric liquid crystal display), thin and light and consumes very little power, and should be cheap to make.
PVI says that their e-paper production lines are fully booked, till the end of the December. The company has readied new production lines for the displays.
The Bookeen Cybook Opus e-reader is available, for 215$. The Opus is a small reader, weighting only 150 grams, with a 6" E Ink display. It supports ePub and PDF files, has 1Gb of internal memory (plus a microSD card slot).
Qualcomm says that they are on-track to deliver their full-color Mirasol displays for e-readers late in 2010. These are 5.7" displays at XGA resolution. They have a fast refresh rates, can play videos, and are readable in direct sunlight. Qualcomm says that the battery consumption is good, too.
Chunghwa Picture Tubes (CPT) plans to start shipping e-paper displays in the second half of 2010. These will be 6" panels, aimed for e-book readers. Interestingly, CPT says they got orders for TFT-LCD panels to be used in e-book readers, too.
Engadget reports that a Wistron manager says they plan to launch a flexible e-paper (5- to 6-inch) reader, based on the Readius in 2010.
The Readius
Dulin is introducing 3 new e-readers. All of them run on Linux, support PDF and ePub (and more formats), has MP3 playback, and includes games and built-in software such as a dictionary and calendar.
Marvell said it has teamed up with E Ink to create an integrated application processor. E-readers based on the technology are expected to hit the market in the first quarter of 2010.
The first devices include the already announced enTourage Edge, a combination e-reader and netbook; the Alex reader from Spring Design, and an offering from Plastic Logic.
Marvell's platform is based on its new Armada family of processors, announced last month.
The company is also partnering with FirstPaper, which is backed by media giant Hearst Corp, for content and graphics technology.
Weili Dai, Marvell's co-founder and general manager of its consumer and computing business unit, estimated the entry level price point of a e-reader based on the Marvell platform at roughly $150 -- cheaper than devices currently on the market, which range upward from $199.
Bridgestone are developing their own e-paper technology, and are now showing a color touch screen flexible e-book reader. The whole reader is actually bendable!
The display is large (13.1"), with 4,096 colors, and a refresh rate of about 0.8 seconds. The reader also includes wireless (cellular) connectivity. Bridgestones will produce samples early next year.