The first device based on color electronic ink

Electronic ink readers are comfortable, lightweight and use little energy, but most of them are at a disadvantage in front of full-color tablet computers, as they have black and white displays.

Today at the FPD 2010 (Flat Panel Display trade show) in Tokyo, the Chinese company will announce that it will be the first company in the world that sells color displays using E Ink's electronic ink technology, whose monochrome displays are used in 90 percent of all electronic readers. the world including Amazon Kindle, Sony Reader and Barnes & Noble Nook.
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And although Barnes & Noble recently announced a color version of the Nook, and the Apple iPad has a color screen, both devices use LCD screens. Thus, the first color e-reader based on "electronic ink" is released by the Beijing company Hanvon Technology.

Color is the next logical step for E Ink. We have become accustomed to, that every display that we see every day is colored. Analysts believe that this is a very important event and will be able to bring e-books to a new, higher level.

The screens based on the E Ink technology have two advantages over the LCD - they use much less energy from the battery and can be read from them under direct sunlight.

However, the new E Ink color displays do not seem such a technological breakthrough, as they do not have the same sharpness and colors as the LCD. The colors are muted, as if you were looking at faded photos. In addition, E Ink is not able to cope with a full-fledged video. At best, can display a simple animation.

To create a color image, E Ink uses a plain black and white display with a superimposed color filter. As a result, the battery life is the same as for conventional electronic readers and is measured in weeks. The screen is perfectly readable in bright light, although the color filter slightly reduces the brightness of the image.

This is one of the reasons why large vendors, such as Amazon and Sony, have not yet begun to produce color electronic readers. Amazon promises to soon sell reading rooms based on color electronic ink. The company considers the use of color useful in cookbooks and children's books, and already offers them in color through its Kindle app for LCD devices. Sony has also taken a wait. The company believes that the color in e-books is necessary, but it should be bright. At the same time, they are not ready to abandon traditional black and white books.

The management of the company E Ink is not upset because of the unwillingness of market leaders to accept their color technologies, considering that this is only a matter of time.

Hanvon, a little-known company in the world, is the largest e-book seller in China (78% in the Chinese market). The first product based on color electronic ink will have a 9.68-inch color touch screen and will be available in China in March at a price of about $ 440. This is less than the cost of an iPad in China, which sells for $ 590. The company plans to position its product as aimed at the business segment, equipping it with Wi-Fi and 3G wireless technologies. The company does not exclude the possibility of selling the device outside of China.

via Slashdot