WRT (With Respect To) Technology

After attending the 2009 Flexible Electronics & Displays Conference last week and seeing today’s press on the Amazon Kindle 2 (photos below), I have to ask whether e-readers are finally on their way to becoming ubiquitous.  The original Kindle sold out and received a great deal of positive press.

A key reason for the success of the Kindle is the inclusion of a wireless means to purchase publications without incurring a monthly wireless data charge.  By bundling the means to wirelessly download publications using the Sprint nationwide wireless network, Amazon has made it transparent and cost effective for readers to browse and purchase publications.

As e-readers improve in design, performance and cost, they have the potential to bring many benefits to consumers, businesses, and the environment.  Consumers appreciate having a slick handheld e-reader that offers many of the same reading characteristics of printed paper books and documents while providing a means to carry and store many publications in a single device.  Students look forward to the day when they can obtain text books in electronic form that are more affordable for use on e-readers that are also affordable and offer lightweight portability.  Throughout the print industry, newspapers and magazines are finding it increasingly difficult to compete with electronic media owing to the high cost of newsprint, print production and distribution.  The print industry has responded by cutting back on the number of printed pages that they distribute and turning in part to electronic distribution on the web.  A key problem going forward is for publishers to reestablish a viable business model.  As e-readers come into wider use, the current print industry has the opportunity to migrate to internet distribution of their content as Amazon’s deals with publishers have shown.

Also important will be the availability of more capable e-readers.  Plastic Logic is developing an e-reader with a 10.7 inch diagonal display.  This week Plastic Logic will announce its prototype e-Reader (photos below) and partnership deals with a number of publishing partners.

A key feature common to many e-reader products is the electrophoretic, or electronic paper, display technology.  Electrophoretic displays made on flexible plastic sheets offer black and white display attributes similar to paper, consume very little electrical power, and are rugged by virtue of their flexible substrate construction.  Although e-readers using electrophoretic displays such as the E-Ink display material of the Kindle, Plastic Logic, and Sony e-readers have been under development for more than 10 years, the evolution and convergence of market factors, the internet, and the need for greener publishing methods are driving the development and adoption of a new class of mobile device.