June 2009

Amazon's Kindle DX is sold out again. Amazon says that this is due to heavy customer demand. It will continue shipping in 4-6 weeks (just a couple of weeks ago, the Kindle DX was sold out, but than it took Amazon only a couple of days to get more inventory).

Amazon kindle DX

It might be that E Ink have problem supplying the large 9.7" E Ink display, or, perhaps, there is indeed heavy customer demand. The Kindle DX costs 489$.

iRiver will soon launch an eBook reader, in Japan only. It will be called the Libre, although it's not yet clear which brand will iRiver use. The reader has a 6" 800x600 E Ink display, is made by PVI, and it uses Foxit software. Data is loaded using USB or memory cards (no wireless).

iRiver hopes to be leading the eBook market in Japan, just like it did in the MP3 players way back. They will sell it online only, and hope to reach 1,000 units sold per month.

TechOn reports that they will sell it for around 300$, saying that PVI sells it for around 150-200$.

News article can be collected by the Foxit software crawler, and PDF files can be read, too. iRiver are in talks with newspaper companies and other content providers.

Boston.com reports that some E Ink investors are not happy with PVI's acquisition. It turns out that they think that E Ink is worth much more than 215M$... E Ink sales are growing fast - they are projected to reach 110M$ in sales in 2009.

Amazon's Kindle DX (with the 9.7" E Ink display) has sold out in 3 days. We do not know how many they actually sold, but in any case Amazon will have more devices ready by June 17...(you can see this info over at Amazon's Kindle DX page)

The Kindle DX costs 489$, it's not a cheap device, and it's great to see that it is selling so well.

I had the good fortune of talking to Sriram peruvembra, E Ink's marketing VP. Sriram is always happy to help, and has agreed to do a short interview with us.

Sriram Peruvemba is VP of Marketing for E Ink Corporation. He has over 20 years of experience in the electronics industry including extensive background in the electronic display industry, having held management positions with Suntronic Technology, Planar Systems, TFS and Sharp. He holds a BSEE and a MBA.

Q: What kind of displays does E ink currently offer?

E Ink makes a display platform referred to as E Ink Vizplex. The E Ink Vizplex imaging film is used in Active Matrix displays for applications such as eBooks. For SURF displays for applications such as wrist watches. And in Ink-In-Motion displays used in applications such as signage. The active matrix displays have a glass based backplane whereas the SURF and Ink-In-Motion displays use flexible backplanes.

The released and Amazon started shipping it to customers.

Amazon Kindle DX

Gizmodo have reviewed it., and they like the large display and the fact that E Ink is easy on the eye. They're not too happy with the display speed - it takes too long to turn a page.

Hicel have made a brochure for Hyundai Yachts, using a flexible segmented E Ink display (SURF displays):

It looks very much like the Esquire magazine cover display...

Samsung are showing a 10.2" hybrid LCD/epaper display that's capable of color video. This is somewhat like Pixel-Qi's hybrid display - it can switch between regular LCD and a 'memory' mode in which only changes in display draw power.

Samsung Hybrid LCD-ePaper

LG are showing new ePaper technology, with a flexible 11.5" prototype. The display is also a touchscreen. We don't have a lot of info yet, beside this photo:

Netronix is showing some new E Ink e-readers at Computex. There are several devices, ranging from 5" to 9.7" (using the same display as the Kindle DX). The 6" device comes with wireless and touchscreen...

Netronix is an ODM, so we will not see these devices under that brand... hopefully someone will pick them up and market them...