Polymer Vision has been bought by an Asian company (we do not know the name yet). They will restart the development of foldable E Ink displays. Polymer Vision will retain about 80% of their employees.
Polymer Vision was about to release the Readius - an e-reader with a foldable E Ink display, and will continue development (although it might be a different product).
SiPix (a unit of AU Optronics) says they will launch color e-paper by the end of 2010. The new displays are based on new developments by AU Optronics in thin-film-transistor panels.
There's a new report by the Cleantech Group that says that e-readers are green. In fact, according to the projected sales of e-readers in 2009 and 2012 could reduce co-2 emissions by 10.9 million tons.
Their analysis says that one year of use could offset the emissions made by manufacturing and distribution (and operation). Each following year of use could actually be preventing the release of 370 pounds of carbon dioxide per user (assuming individuals buy about 22.5 books a year).
The report mentions that using an e-paper based reader (currently
almost all of these are E Ink based) is best - because of the low power
consumption.
Plastic Logic are working towards a flexible E Ink display based E--Reader, and they say that they will start making the displays soon. The reader itself is expected to be available at the beginning of 2010, for about the same price as the Kindle.
Even though the display is flexible, the product itself will not be - as people do not really want a flexible display - they are afraid it will be easily destroyed... So this will be a regular E Reader, with a plastic based display.
Digitimes reports that AUO will start producing ePaper for e-readers soon. Shipments are expected in 3Q 2009.
The panels will be 6" to 9" at first, but the company will also be working on 10" and even A4 sizes later.
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.
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:
HP announces a new display technology called Electronic Skins. eSkins is a flexible reflective color film, that can alos display icons or alpha-numeric characters.
HP eSkins technology offers brand manufacturers new ways to personalize their products with an electronically controlled color surface created using HPâs breakthrough roll-to-roll manufacturing platform. Designed to make fine-scale circuitry on plastic substrates, the platform processes flexible screens in rolls rather than individual sheets, offering the potential for more cost-effective manufacturing.
This new device architecture is compatible with roll-to-roll plastic circuits that can be combined with proprietary, electrically controllable âinksâ to achieve print-like color performance, as well as transparency. Using a technology similar to color printing, HP is developing the capability to produce specific âinkâ colors within the PANTONE MATCHING SYSTEM® range. The vibrant, print-quality colors have excellent visibility in direct sunlight and can electronically shift into a transparent state, revealing the surface below the eSkins film.
CNet reports that Amazon's CEO, Jeff Bezos says that a color kindle is years away. Bezos says: "I've seen the color displays in the laboratory, and I can assure you they're not ready for prime time".
