E-paper History: An Interview with Nick Sheridon, Father of E-paper (2007)

https://thefutureofthings.com/3081-the-future-of-electronic-paper/

by phil294 • 5 years ago

9 5 5 years ago

phil294• 5 years ago

Note that the bottom half of the above article confusingly is an interview with yet another Nick (Hampshire).

Sidenode, here is another interview with Nick Sheridon from 2009, apparently not even retrievable using Google: https://web.archive.org/web/20090413144446/https://www.epape...

robinsoh2• 5 years ago

As you said, this is from 2007. It is useful to see the impact of volume on price. See below the remark about a 2" E Ink display costing 2 grand.

"At this stage, some of the products based on E Ink’s technology are little more than expensive gimmicks, such as Seiko’s limited-edition e-paper watch (priced at over $2,000)."

Compare that with today and a 6" Kindle display costing under $100. A 20x reduction in cost.

It reinforces his next point about the complex relationship between price and volume. If I had to guess what moved the needle on price of E Ink displays, I'd have to say it was Jeff Bezos for being willing to put down a commitment to buying a large amount of panels which then allowed the manufacturer to scale up their production lines in order to reach that level of cost reduction.

" Q: What are the current obstacles facing mass adoption of e-paper technology?

A: The main obstacle is price. Our research shows that the cost of an e-paper-based reader has to fall to under $100 before a significant percentage of the population will buy one. Even then, they will only buy if suitable content is available at a reasonable cost. The second obstacle is availability of content. "

dTal• 5 years ago

The price of the Seiko watch was because it was a "luxury" product, not because of the screen. The first gen Kindle went on sale for $399 in November 2007 and had a 6-inch e-ink screen. I don't think the price has come down that much, certainly not as much as other display tech (you can buy a gorgeous 4K TV for that kind of money now).

As I understand it, the main obstacle to cheap e-ink screens is actually licensing.

robinsoh2• 5 years ago

As I understand it, the main obstacle to cheap e-ink screens is actually licensing.

Based on?

death916• 5 years ago

This is interesting. I don't know what it is but e paper displays have always enticed me

E-paper History: An Interview with Nick Sheridon, Father of E-paper (2007)

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