PCWorld: Bye-bye Kindle, E-reader Screens Coming for Netbooks

[Andybaby]

Originally Posted by Tuna

Pixel Qi are good at generating publicity, but a netbook is not an ebook. It's not convenient to hold open; it's a lot bulkier than a dedicated reader, never mind a book; it doesn't have a good user interface for easy book reading and it doesn't have the battery life - even with a low powered screen.

This is great news for netbooks, but ebooks don't have much to worry about yet.

actually the screen, if its picked up in netbooks, it would be great for netbooks, but the demand will raise, and if their claims of "easialy converted factories to produce this new screen" are true, it means lower cost in the long run.

10,000 screens, 200 bucks each (this is what I have heard for the cost of the 10 inch from them)
100,000 screens, 100 bucks each
1,000,000 screens, 50 bucks each

so if the tech takes off in netbooks, the only part of the computer industry on the rise, it will be a good thing in lowering cost for the screen, and the goods behind the screen are nothing special

[etherspin]

the tech is great - I can see this quickly becoming a must have feature with ebooks taking off , its gonna be a screen with this tech or an OLED screen (well i dont know if there is an OLED equivalent possible).

[HarryT]

There are still significant issues with OLED screens. There are severe doubts concerning their longevity - for blue light particularly, apparently. It would not be good to have a screen which is unreadable after a year's usage. This is a problem that unfortunately only time will reveal the extent of.

[cheese bogart]

HarryT I saw in article that at the moment OLED's only have a life of around 30K hours, which is what (if I remember rightly) plasmas had when they first came out. Not to bad in my opinion. I think that works out that you could use the screen for 12 hours a day for nearly 7 years.

[junkyardwillie]

Originally Posted by etherspin

this will hurt e-readers to the same degree as mobile phones with cameras hurt digital cameras.. not much

I think the quality of camera's on mobile phones are vastly different from the quality you can get with a digital camera. If you add in the fact that a netbook with an LCD screen that won't strain your eye's similar to an eink device also has the ability to support other actions (programs/software/web browers/video) I think the better comparison you should make is this will hurt e-readers to the same degree as the ipod hurt portable cd players. Cameras in phones are a step down in functionality from dedicated digital cameras (Sony has small digital camera's that can shoot HD video quality better than some larger camcorders), e-readers only provide one function, reading books, netbooks have multifarious functions one of which will be reading books and to tell the truth if you can throw an Adobe reader program on there they will be better at reading PDFs because of the versatility of an operating system versus what ereaders can do with their limited customizing ability.

Do I think eReaders will go away immediately, no but I think if Pixel Qi comes through with its pricing quotes of being in the range of netbooks today you won't be seeing a lot of news about eink readers next year as their recent 15 minutes of fame will be over.

[momghoti]

Maybe. But, it's not my hoped for future I like the small size of a dedicated ereader; the reading experience is very similar to a paper book without the storage problem or the dust. I don't even feel the urge for color; I think it's just something else to jack the price up and maybe foul things up. I'm a bit concerned that if this new tech takes off, with it being basically a modification of an existing tech, it will shove epaper off the radar before the kinks are worked out, especially the flexible screens.
On the other hand, I'm excited about the possibilities for laptops. I would love the option to read websites/email without a backlight and have the extended battery life.

[brecklundin]

Originally Posted by momghoti

Maybe. But, it's not my hoped for future I like the small size of a dedicated ereader; the reading experience is very similar to a paper book without the storage problem or the dust. I don't even feel the urge for color; I think it's just something else to jack the price up and maybe foul things up. I'm a bit concerned that if this new tech takes off, with it being basically a modification of an existing tech, it will shove epaper off the radar before the kinks are worked out, especially the flexible screens.
On the other hand, I'm excited about the possibilities for laptops. I would love the option to read websites/email without a backlight and have the extended battery life.

What I see is if the 3Qi and subsequent evolutions of the tech deliver as they really seem they are going to, then I sense the obvious shift will be to more portable pocket type readers for most people. I would certainly consider a 5" or 6" reader (for the 6" only as long as the case is in the size rage of the current 5" readers and a couple actually deliver there, I just forget which). Still, I love reading, and actually prefer, trade paperback size format. From a recent thread here I learned that the current 9.7"-10" readers basically provide about the same relative page size. So, even if the device itself is a bit larger, I will be watching for a device that delivers in this area as well.

I mean there will be times I just want to read and no reason not to have a secondary device for that single purpose. So, I see in general a bit of pressure actually being taken off the backs of the eink based industry by the adoption of the Pixel Qi displays. Think is there growth curves will likely show a decline in the short term, until they can determine, yet again, where the sweet spot in the marketplace exists.

For me I suspect the 5" reader will be my secondary device, yet still the ~9"-10" format has it's perks too given the close approximation of the trade paperback size. And again, I am talking about the actual display not the device dimensions on the case of the large format reading device.

[wallcraft]

Originally Posted by junkyardwillie

Do I think eReaders will go away immediately, no but I think if Pixel Qi comes through with its pricing quotes of being in the range of netbooks today you won't be seeing a lot of news about eink readers next year as their recent 15 minutes of fame will be over.

It immediately slams the door on the larger full-function devices, like the DR1000S, Plastic Logic and Kindle DX. At this size, particularly for business and student use, all you need is all-day battery life (8-10 hrs) and a reasonable weight. The reason that the Pixel Qi screens wins are a) color and b) complete compatibility with all existing software (with conventional screen refresh rates). The price difference between a multi-purpose device and a single purpose (or restricted purpose) device for this class of machine is virtually zero (for Linux) or ~$50-100 (for Windows XP and a bit more hardware).

For smaller devices, Pixel Qi can presumably make 5" and 7" screens too. Here a dedicated reading device might be a bit cheaper, but I can see multi-function tablets too. However, UMPC's have completely failed to catch on so far. This might just be a price issue though. If they were $250, perhaps many more people would buy one. PVI must currently be making good margins on the EInk screens, and it will be interesting to see how low the screen price can go if there are viable alternatives.

[brecklundin]

Originally Posted by wallcraft

It immediately slams the door on the larger full-function devices, like the DR1000S, Plastic Logic and Kindle DX. At this size, particularly for business and student use, all you need is all-day battery life (8-10 hrs) and a reasonable weight. The reason that the Pixel Qi screens wins are a) color and b) complete compatibility with all existing software (with conventional screen refresh rates). The price difference between a multi-purpose device and a single purpose (or restricted purpose) device for this class of machine is virtually zero (for Linux) or ~$50-100 (for Windows XP and a bit more hardware).

For smaller devices, Pixel Qi can presumably make 5" and 7" screens too. Here a dedicated reading device might be a bit cheaper, but I can see multi-function tablets too. However, UMPC's have completely failed to catch on so far. This might just be a price issue though. If they were $250, perhaps many more people would buy one. PVI must currently be making good margins on the EInk screens, and it will be interesting to see how low the screen price can go if there are viable alternatives.

To further add to that list, if the device can add an active digitizer to the display, you then have a note taking monster which give a big boost in the business & student arena's. Even us small business self employed sorts could sure use something like this in the field or while working. Though when I am designing an app, I like to used the good old graph paper "Comp Books). They are cheap, durable and take up little space. But a device with a 3Qi that can run OneNote, Evernote or some other note management software and do so for 20+ hrs, might make the devices even more compelling.