E Ink-2016: how is the situation on the market of readers?
Portable electronic readers (readers, book readers, poketbooks, etc.) are a kind of device-invisible information space. On the Internet, they are rarely and rarely written about them recently, very few people do reviews of such devices, they hardly discuss them on social networks ... But it’s worth taking a ride on the Moscow or St. Petersburg metro - and you can meet a person with a reader in almost every car. And it certainly will not even be one person, but two or more. It is worth visiting a book reader for something - and on the bed / desk / windowsill you can most often see an electronic reader.
Individual characters write in the discussions on the forums that the reading rooms, they say, have become extinct, and no one else deals with them, and nobody else buys them. What can I say? I wish these characters to look around more often. If you don’t take my word for it, I’ll give you some numbers: in 2013, the volume of the Russian market of E-Ink readers was 800 thousand, in 2014 - 870 thousand, and in 2015 it remained at about the 2014 level. That is, the market in recent years is not something that has not shrunk to the size of a walnut, but very much grew! Suffice it to say that in 2011, when the boom in the reading room started visible in the naked eye in Russia, the volume of the market for such devices with E Ink screens amounted to “only” 680,000 pieces. That is much less than now.
With all this, by 2016 the reader market in Russia has become virtually mono-brand. It is as it was: in 2011-2012. readers rushed to carry from China all who are not lazy, not possessing any competence in this matter. As a result, readers began to offer dozens of brands - I remember that the author of these lines a couple of years ago had about 50 (fifty) reader brands on Yandex.Market. However, the lion’s case didn’t get their share: the products were of poor quality (and there are no other products in the catalogs of small Chinese factories!), And the base of the assortment were readers with TFT screens. This is such a funny technological curiosity, now completely thrown into the dustbin of history - actually digital photo frames with the ability to display books. Such devices cost much cheaper than tablets, having color screens. Due to this, TFT readers were sold, having gained, however, the glory of buggy and unreliable devices.
')
In those days - 2011-2012. - PocketBook had the most impressive market share: about 40% of the market. I admit that it could have been more, but it did not work out - precisely because of the above-described one-day brands, which ate up their share due to the low price offered, sorry, slag. By 2016, these same "one-day" went to the Land of Eternal Hunting, and the share of PocketBook rose to the level of 70-80%. The reasons for this success are obvious: PocketBook is one of the few companies on the reader market that has been and is still actively involved in the development of such devices. Developed 100% by yourself. There are no Chinese R & D centers and cheap consumer goods: only your engineering and software, only hardcore. Plus PocketBook does not lead any other activity with any other types of devices. Because it focuses solely on readers and does not offer 100,500 product categories, like the notorious umbrella brands, which, due to the huge range, are simply unable to pay the necessary attention to each type of product.
Another three years ago, shop windows were filled with assorted readers from dozens of “pseudo-Russian” brands.
The evolution of manufacturability (let's call it that) in recent years is mainly due to the appearance of new types of E Ink screens. Of course, there are other innovations / improvements in packbooks, but the evolution of displays is the main thing. Indeed, using the reader, in 100% of cases we are closely looking at the screen, consuming textual content. And the better and more pleasant for the eyes this very screen is, the better. Immediately, I note that all kinds of different “alternatives” of E Ink, like SiPix, Mirasol and Plastic Logic, have failed to withstand the test of time, and they are not used anywhere else. More precisely, not quite. Mirasol recently flashed on the Qualcomm Toq smartwatch, but they won no glory in the market and went unnoticed.
Prototype reader with Qualcomm Mirasol screen
Kobo eReader is practically the only serial package with the Mirasol screen. In fact, the beta version of the device, which decided to test on users for their own money
The company SiPix in 2012 was bought by E Ink, which few people remember / know. I have no data on whether SiPix technologies are now used in E Ink displays - it is quite possible that this acquisition was made only for the sake of destroying the last of any prominent competitor. (Although comparing E Ink and Sipix is ​​about how to compare Intel and AMD: both make processors for personal computers, but the products of the latter - if we talk about the "stones" for PCs - nobody really needs them today.)
As for Plastic Logic, this whole loud story with blackjack and affordable ladies with RUSNANO, Chubais, British scientists and attempts to introduce "nanoriders" into Russian schools ended in nothing. Back in 2012, Plastic Logic announced its withdrawal from the reader market, but promised that it would sell its "screen" technology to anyone. There were no people willing: today, E Ink is used in all of the packbooks, and only he, and over time such screens became much stronger and more reliable, which made Plastic Logic unbreakable plastic displays virtually unnecessary and unclaimed. As far as schools are concerned, at one time it was quite successfully introduced ... no, not Plastic Logic, but the same PocketBook with the PocketBook Pro 903 model. (By the way, with a close analogue of the latter - PocketBook Pro 902 - Mr. Chubais time compared their “nanoriders.” But the latter turned out to be less tenacious than PocketBook.)
"Chubais Reader" Plastic Logic 100 can be characterized by the phrase "much ado about nothing"
PocketBook Pro 903 withstood a one-year experiment in Russian schools
So, on the E Ink screens and their evolution. Vizplex belongs to the first generation of "electronic ink" (resolution - 600 x 800, contrast - 7: 1). Today, such displays are no longer used in readers, although in some stores Zamkadya can still be found models with these displays - stale goods, not sold out in previous years. You should not take such a reading room: it is not that it was unpleasant to read from them, it’s just that the battery can be dead after two or three years of felting in the warehouse.
Logically, now it’s worth talking about the second generation E Ink, but for a start I will remember the third one, and here's why. Displays of the third generation - Triton 1 and Triton 2 (color palette - up to 4,096 colors) - were found in an extremely small number of serial products. In fact, only in the now discontinued 8-inch PocketBook Color Lux. In general, it can be stated that the color "electronic ink" did not go, and second-generation monochrome screens rule the market of readers. Why did not go color E Ink? Well, the reasons, in my opinion, are as follows. The first and most important thing is the price: it was expensive, and hoo how. A reader with a color “electronic” screen cost almost twice as much as a reader with a monochrome display. Plus, the company E Ink finally decided not to develop this direction, realizing that Triton and Triton 2 look much worse in terms of color reproduction than LCD screens. And it will be very difficult to explain to the people what the cooler color E Ink is.
PocketBook Color Lux with E Ink Triton 2 color screen
The second generation E Ink is represented by Pearl screens (resolution - 600 x 800 pixels, contrast - 10: 1), Pearl HD (resolution - 1024 x 758, contrast ratio - 12: 1) and Carta (resolution - 600 x 800, 1448 x 1072 or 1080 x 1440 pixels, contrast ratio - 15: 1). As you can see, with each new version, the E Ink screens became more contrasting and crisp. So, they all looked more like ordinary paper. Indeed, if the same Vizplex resembled a cheap yellowish newspaper and nothing more, then Carta already looks almost the same as an expensive paper book with high-quality printing. Moreover, the higher the contrast, the less strongly we need to peer into the screen for text perception. This means that the load on the eyesight, which is already insignificant in the case of E Ink screens, is reduced.
As seen in this picture, the text on the E Ink Carta screen is clearer and more contrast than on E Ink Pearl.
PocketBook 631 Touch HD - the flagship 6-inch reader with an E Ink Carta screen, backlight, Wi-Fi, 8 GB of memory and other signs of a top-end reader
In general, maximum eye safety is a key feature of E Ink. That for which such displays (and along with them the devices themselves - poketbooks) are loved and appreciated. See what happens in the camp of LCD screens (tablets, smartphones, laptops): in recent years, such displays have become brighter, more often there are instances with more or less correct color rendition, they have improved resolution, they have become somewhat more economical. But! LCD still glare at the sun (which irritates the eyes!), They still go blind under the rays (and this also irritates the eyes, as you have to peer at the image / text), they still have flickering backlight (tiring eyes already a couple of hours of continuous reading!), because of them the same tablets work on average a day, maximum two. Yes, in some devices with LCD screens, a setting that excludes blues from color rendition has recently appeared, which allegedly reduces eye strain. Well, yes, this is about how to treat cancer with Vitamin C injections: any (any!) LCD screen with a long look at it has a detrimental effect on eyesight, and no exceptions to blue can affect it. Macro-marketing, gentlemen, sir! But marketing is marketing, and if from a young (school) age you regularly stare at LCD screens, then you can earn short-sightedness by adulthood. What actually happened to the author of this post.
E Ink (left) behaves well in the sun, but from the LCD screen of the tablet it is very difficult to read the information - highlights!
Whether it's E Ink. Such screens do not glare at all in the sun. And they look from the point of view of perception with the human eye, which I have already said, as paper of different quality - depending on the generation of the screen. As a result, when reading from "electronic ink" eyes get tired about the same as when reading an ordinary paper book. And they are tired simply because their vision cannot fail to get tired at a long look at an object that is at a distance of a half-bent arm. And yes, the safety of E Ink compared to LCD is talked about including scientists from the US National Institutes of Health.
Complements the picture of the fact that E Ink does not consume energy when displaying a static image, so that the battery is consumed only when turning the pages. From here and month without recharge at the average reader-poketbuk. Yes, a whole month without a power outlet! Compare with a day or two days at the tablets - and see the difference. What is characteristic, years go by, but nothing changes - the tablets still work a little, and the readers are still so long. Although the functionality of the device expands in the first and second cases.
From left to right: E Ink, paper, LCD. The first and second are much more common than the second and third
If we talk not only about the screens, but about the capabilities and functionality of the readers as a whole, then there is also noticeable evolution, interspersed with mini-revolutions. The latter include the first on the market poketbook with E Ink screen and built-in camera - this is PocketBook Ultra. The camera in it is needed for photographing the text with subsequent recognition through a special utility.
The camera in the packagebook is a truly unexpected component. But in PocketBook Ultra it is present
Among other interesting models of PocketBook - PocketBook Aqua with protection against water (you can read in the bathroom and on the beach, without fear of spoiling the device).
With PocketBook Aqua you can read on the beach or, say, in the bathroom
Among other features of modern poketbooks, you can highlight Wi-Fi support, even low-end models - like the PocketBook 614 Plus for 7,490 rubles. A number of extremely interesting options are based on Wi-Fi: in the vast majority of PocketBook readers with Internet access, there is integration with Dropbox and the function “e-mail books”. These options allow you to download books into the reader "over the air", without a cable connection to the computer - which is very, very convenient. After all, we have 99% of users, as before, do not buy books, but simply download on the Internet from a PC. (However, there is also a store in PocketBook readers - those who wish can buy content).
Summarizing all the above, we can draw the following conclusion: in spite of the disappearance of readers from the information flow, these devices not only continue to exist, but also develop, and at the same time enjoy very serious popularity. They just talk about them a little and quietly - poketbooks eventually turned into the category of “vacuum cleaner” or “refrigerator” level. Have you seen people bragging on the forums and in social networks with their own refrigerators? No, this is not observed. But the fridges are buying, and how. So with poketbooks a similar situation. Comrades who bought such devices prefer not to talk about it at every corner, but to read. The benefit of E Ink is extremely pleasing to the eye and does not cause their irritation. As for the reader's advice, I will refrain from them: the leader (or rather, even the monopolist) in this market is one, this is PocketBook, and in its lineup there are more than a dozen reading rooms with prices from 7,490 to 19,990 rubles. There are plenty to choose from, depending on your budget, wishes and preferences.
Individual characters write in the discussions on the forums that the reading rooms, they say, have become extinct, and no one else deals with them, and nobody else buys them. What can I say? I wish these characters to look around more often. If you don’t take my word for it, I’ll give you some numbers: in 2013, the volume of the Russian market of E-Ink readers was 800 thousand, in 2014 - 870 thousand, and in 2015 it remained at about the 2014 level. That is, the market in recent years is not something that has not shrunk to the size of a walnut, but very much grew! Suffice it to say that in 2011, when the boom in the reading room started visible in the naked eye in Russia, the volume of the market for such devices with E Ink screens amounted to “only” 680,000 pieces. That is much less than now.
With all this, by 2016 the reader market in Russia has become virtually mono-brand. It is as it was: in 2011-2012. readers rushed to carry from China all who are not lazy, not possessing any competence in this matter. As a result, readers began to offer dozens of brands - I remember that the author of these lines a couple of years ago had about 50 (fifty) reader brands on Yandex.Market. However, the lion’s case didn’t get their share: the products were of poor quality (and there are no other products in the catalogs of small Chinese factories!), And the base of the assortment were readers with TFT screens. This is such a funny technological curiosity, now completely thrown into the dustbin of history - actually digital photo frames with the ability to display books. Such devices cost much cheaper than tablets, having color screens. Due to this, TFT readers were sold, having gained, however, the glory of buggy and unreliable devices.
')
In those days - 2011-2012. - PocketBook had the most impressive market share: about 40% of the market. I admit that it could have been more, but it did not work out - precisely because of the above-described one-day brands, which ate up their share due to the low price offered, sorry, slag. By 2016, these same "one-day" went to the Land of Eternal Hunting, and the share of PocketBook rose to the level of 70-80%. The reasons for this success are obvious: PocketBook is one of the few companies on the reader market that has been and is still actively involved in the development of such devices. Developed 100% by yourself. There are no Chinese R & D centers and cheap consumer goods: only your engineering and software, only hardcore. Plus PocketBook does not lead any other activity with any other types of devices. Because it focuses solely on readers and does not offer 100,500 product categories, like the notorious umbrella brands, which, due to the huge range, are simply unable to pay the necessary attention to each type of product.
Another three years ago, shop windows were filled with assorted readers from dozens of “pseudo-Russian” brands.
The evolution of manufacturability (let's call it that) in recent years is mainly due to the appearance of new types of E Ink screens. Of course, there are other innovations / improvements in packbooks, but the evolution of displays is the main thing. Indeed, using the reader, in 100% of cases we are closely looking at the screen, consuming textual content. And the better and more pleasant for the eyes this very screen is, the better. Immediately, I note that all kinds of different “alternatives” of E Ink, like SiPix, Mirasol and Plastic Logic, have failed to withstand the test of time, and they are not used anywhere else. More precisely, not quite. Mirasol recently flashed on the Qualcomm Toq smartwatch, but they won no glory in the market and went unnoticed.
Prototype reader with Qualcomm Mirasol screen
Kobo eReader is practically the only serial package with the Mirasol screen. In fact, the beta version of the device, which decided to test on users for their own money
The company SiPix in 2012 was bought by E Ink, which few people remember / know. I have no data on whether SiPix technologies are now used in E Ink displays - it is quite possible that this acquisition was made only for the sake of destroying the last of any prominent competitor. (Although comparing E Ink and Sipix is ​​about how to compare Intel and AMD: both make processors for personal computers, but the products of the latter - if we talk about the "stones" for PCs - nobody really needs them today.)
As for Plastic Logic, this whole loud story with blackjack and affordable ladies with RUSNANO, Chubais, British scientists and attempts to introduce "nanoriders" into Russian schools ended in nothing. Back in 2012, Plastic Logic announced its withdrawal from the reader market, but promised that it would sell its "screen" technology to anyone. There were no people willing: today, E Ink is used in all of the packbooks, and only he, and over time such screens became much stronger and more reliable, which made Plastic Logic unbreakable plastic displays virtually unnecessary and unclaimed. As far as schools are concerned, at one time it was quite successfully introduced ... no, not Plastic Logic, but the same PocketBook with the PocketBook Pro 903 model. (By the way, with a close analogue of the latter - PocketBook Pro 902 - Mr. Chubais time compared their “nanoriders.” But the latter turned out to be less tenacious than PocketBook.)
"Chubais Reader" Plastic Logic 100 can be characterized by the phrase "much ado about nothing"
PocketBook Pro 903 withstood a one-year experiment in Russian schools
So, on the E Ink screens and their evolution. Vizplex belongs to the first generation of "electronic ink" (resolution - 600 x 800, contrast - 7: 1). Today, such displays are no longer used in readers, although in some stores Zamkadya can still be found models with these displays - stale goods, not sold out in previous years. You should not take such a reading room: it is not that it was unpleasant to read from them, it’s just that the battery can be dead after two or three years of felting in the warehouse.
Logically, now it’s worth talking about the second generation E Ink, but for a start I will remember the third one, and here's why. Displays of the third generation - Triton 1 and Triton 2 (color palette - up to 4,096 colors) - were found in an extremely small number of serial products. In fact, only in the now discontinued 8-inch PocketBook Color Lux. In general, it can be stated that the color "electronic ink" did not go, and second-generation monochrome screens rule the market of readers. Why did not go color E Ink? Well, the reasons, in my opinion, are as follows. The first and most important thing is the price: it was expensive, and hoo how. A reader with a color “electronic” screen cost almost twice as much as a reader with a monochrome display. Plus, the company E Ink finally decided not to develop this direction, realizing that Triton and Triton 2 look much worse in terms of color reproduction than LCD screens. And it will be very difficult to explain to the people what the cooler color E Ink is.
PocketBook Color Lux with E Ink Triton 2 color screen
The second generation E Ink is represented by Pearl screens (resolution - 600 x 800 pixels, contrast - 10: 1), Pearl HD (resolution - 1024 x 758, contrast ratio - 12: 1) and Carta (resolution - 600 x 800, 1448 x 1072 or 1080 x 1440 pixels, contrast ratio - 15: 1). As you can see, with each new version, the E Ink screens became more contrasting and crisp. So, they all looked more like ordinary paper. Indeed, if the same Vizplex resembled a cheap yellowish newspaper and nothing more, then Carta already looks almost the same as an expensive paper book with high-quality printing. Moreover, the higher the contrast, the less strongly we need to peer into the screen for text perception. This means that the load on the eyesight, which is already insignificant in the case of E Ink screens, is reduced.
As seen in this picture, the text on the E Ink Carta screen is clearer and more contrast than on E Ink Pearl.
PocketBook 631 Touch HD - the flagship 6-inch reader with an E Ink Carta screen, backlight, Wi-Fi, 8 GB of memory and other signs of a top-end reader
In general, maximum eye safety is a key feature of E Ink. That for which such displays (and along with them the devices themselves - poketbooks) are loved and appreciated. See what happens in the camp of LCD screens (tablets, smartphones, laptops): in recent years, such displays have become brighter, more often there are instances with more or less correct color rendition, they have improved resolution, they have become somewhat more economical. But! LCD still glare at the sun (which irritates the eyes!), They still go blind under the rays (and this also irritates the eyes, as you have to peer at the image / text), they still have flickering backlight (tiring eyes already a couple of hours of continuous reading!), because of them the same tablets work on average a day, maximum two. Yes, in some devices with LCD screens, a setting that excludes blues from color rendition has recently appeared, which allegedly reduces eye strain. Well, yes, this is about how to treat cancer with Vitamin C injections: any (any!) LCD screen with a long look at it has a detrimental effect on eyesight, and no exceptions to blue can affect it. Macro-marketing, gentlemen, sir! But marketing is marketing, and if from a young (school) age you regularly stare at LCD screens, then you can earn short-sightedness by adulthood. What actually happened to the author of this post.
E Ink (left) behaves well in the sun, but from the LCD screen of the tablet it is very difficult to read the information - highlights!
Whether it's E Ink. Such screens do not glare at all in the sun. And they look from the point of view of perception with the human eye, which I have already said, as paper of different quality - depending on the generation of the screen. As a result, when reading from "electronic ink" eyes get tired about the same as when reading an ordinary paper book. And they are tired simply because their vision cannot fail to get tired at a long look at an object that is at a distance of a half-bent arm. And yes, the safety of E Ink compared to LCD is talked about including scientists from the US National Institutes of Health.
Complements the picture of the fact that E Ink does not consume energy when displaying a static image, so that the battery is consumed only when turning the pages. From here and month without recharge at the average reader-poketbuk. Yes, a whole month without a power outlet! Compare with a day or two days at the tablets - and see the difference. What is characteristic, years go by, but nothing changes - the tablets still work a little, and the readers are still so long. Although the functionality of the device expands in the first and second cases.
From left to right: E Ink, paper, LCD. The first and second are much more common than the second and third
If we talk not only about the screens, but about the capabilities and functionality of the readers as a whole, then there is also noticeable evolution, interspersed with mini-revolutions. The latter include the first on the market poketbook with E Ink screen and built-in camera - this is PocketBook Ultra. The camera in it is needed for photographing the text with subsequent recognition through a special utility.
The camera in the packagebook is a truly unexpected component. But in PocketBook Ultra it is present
Among other interesting models of PocketBook - PocketBook Aqua with protection against water (you can read in the bathroom and on the beach, without fear of spoiling the device).
With PocketBook Aqua you can read on the beach or, say, in the bathroom
Among other features of modern poketbooks, you can highlight Wi-Fi support, even low-end models - like the PocketBook 614 Plus for 7,490 rubles. A number of extremely interesting options are based on Wi-Fi: in the vast majority of PocketBook readers with Internet access, there is integration with Dropbox and the function “e-mail books”. These options allow you to download books into the reader "over the air", without a cable connection to the computer - which is very, very convenient. After all, we have 99% of users, as before, do not buy books, but simply download on the Internet from a PC. (However, there is also a store in PocketBook readers - those who wish can buy content).
Summarizing all the above, we can draw the following conclusion: in spite of the disappearance of readers from the information flow, these devices not only continue to exist, but also develop, and at the same time enjoy very serious popularity. They just talk about them a little and quietly - poketbooks eventually turned into the category of “vacuum cleaner” or “refrigerator” level. Have you seen people bragging on the forums and in social networks with their own refrigerators? No, this is not observed. But the fridges are buying, and how. So with poketbooks a similar situation. Comrades who bought such devices prefer not to talk about it at every corner, but to read. The benefit of E Ink is extremely pleasing to the eye and does not cause their irritation. As for the reader's advice, I will refrain from them: the leader (or rather, even the monopolist) in this market is one, this is PocketBook, and in its lineup there are more than a dozen reading rooms with prices from 7,490 to 19,990 rubles. There are plenty to choose from, depending on your budget, wishes and preferences.
Source: https://habr.com/ru/post/397065/
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