[Quoth]

IR was valuable for Pearl and also ereaders with no front light. The eink corp now even offer a slightly better than separate panels integrated capacitive touch. The IR touch is a bit lower resolution and "page sleep" mode uses more power (the LEDs). I can't see IR touch coming back. It was abandoned in 1980s for non-eink screens. Also IR touch needs a recessed screen (flush not possible) and exact location of PCB to bezel. Capacitive + eink only needs a larger bezel on edge with ribbon. IR touch needs at least an extra 3mm on each edge, so maybe an extra 8mm in one direction and more than an extra 8mm in the other direction that has ribbon because the IR LEDs or photo transistors can't be obscured by the ribbon.