Rumors are circulating on the web that the new iPad will be available in April in the USA and it will be, among other things, thinner. But still pretty thick, if you compare it to a sheet of paper.

A future vision of an eBook reader...

According to an article on the Journal of the Society for Information Display, however, by 2030 we will indeed have plenty of screens as thin and as foldable as paper with the same kind of resolution, color and brilliance of a magazine page and the same capability to display a movie as one of today’s screen.

They go as far as photoshopping a photo to show one of these futuristic paper screen used as you take a bath, to emphasize that it will also be waterproof (unfortunately the photoshopper missed the fact that he placed a dressed up lady in the bath tub, which seems unrealistic, even twenty years from now!).

By the middle of this years we should see the first color eInk eBook reader, but don’t get too excited. The color will be dim, like faded away, nothing to compare with an LCD screen. Besides, the refresh time will still be long, so long as not to allow the display of video clip.

To get a better color screen we might need to wait for a few more years but at that time we will probably be used to have high resolution screen (retina type) on the LCD tablet. Still, the eInk technology will remain unbeatable in terns of reading on the beach (where the screen cooperate with the Sun rather than competing with it -and losing- as it is the case for LCD) and in terms of power consumption. THey will therefore keep their market share.

They will also be the the device of choice for classrooms where the paper like quality, robustness and low pawer consumption may be real winner (once the color and refresh time will no longer be an issue).

In the medium term, two to three years, we may also see eInk technology make a way in the area of labels in department stores. Such labels would allow the store manager to change price in real time to match the average consumer at that particular time of the day. Something that is already being trialled in some supermarkets in France and Germany,

I stumble yesterday on a nice slide show about the evolution of the eBook Reader, something I found interesting and I like to share:

http://www.fastcompany.com/pics/journey-e-book-slideshow

The first

As you’ll see looking at the slides, the idea of an eBook (and an eBook Reader) goes back to the 70ies of the last century with the imagination, and work, of Michael Hart, at that time a student at the University of Illinois, who dreamt of a world where all books can be hosted in a computer in a digital form and made available, on demand, to any reader. It is amazing to think what Michael imagined at that time. The Internet was not born and it was difficult to imagine a computer in any hand to read an eBook.

He did more than just dreaming. He found a sponsorship and started to digitize books. The first one was the Declaration of Independence of the United States of America.

It was the start of the project Gutenberg, a project that is still alive in our days and that has made available almost 100,000 books in digital form. Now we can get those books, and read them, through a number of readers, software applications running on many Operating Systems and many devices. Personally, I use Stanza on the iPad and FreeReader on the Galaxy. If Gutenberg is providing the reading material (for free, and there are plenty of others providing both free and pay-to-read material) what has really started the shift from paper to bits is the device, the eBook reader. Probably the first to appear in the mass market was the Sony, exploiting the eInk technology to provide a paper like image of a page.

The success, however came one year after with the Amazon Kindle, now at its third edition. And, of course, this year might be remembered as the one of the eBook reader explosion thanks to the iPad and the following tablets.

So, what’s next? I guess we should expect two trends of evolution: on the one hand better generic devices able to provide reading pages easy to the eyes, with color. E-Ink technology will get better (faster switching time eventually supporting moving images and clips in the second part of this decade) but LCD technology (tablets) will continue to flank it. Whilst the former is likely to be used mostly for books, the second will absorb the lap-top market and will also be used for books. One of the possible evolution is the usage of smart materials as interface, flexible surfaces mimicking the feeling of paper in our hands.

On the other hand we might expect specific, dedicated devices to support the reading of specific material, be it Wikipedia (there is already a Franklin device for that), schoolbooks, enterprise specific documentation and so on. As the device cost will continue to decrease, I think that an increasing space for these specific devices that will be sold in terms of content will become available.

eInk technology is used by most eBook reader (90% of them)  for its similarity to a printed page. It has many advantages over an LCD screen (like low power consumption and visibility in full daylight) but it does not support color, at least so far.

Hanvon color eInk Reader

But now a Chinese company, Hanvon Technology, has presented a color eInk eBook Reader at the FDP International 2010 trade show in Tokyo. It should be available next March at 440$ and will provide WiFi and 3G connectivity.

This innovation is surely a step in the right direction, however the colors are far from the brilliance of the ones that can be displayed using LCD technology. Also when compared to printed paper the colors do not have the brilliance of photographic paper nor the one of magazines. It looks more like an old magazine with colors washed out by the passing of time or the very first attempt at color printing thirty years ago. Also, they do not support moving images since the switching time is too long for that.

However, as I said, this is just a first step and I am pretty sure that technology will progress. Clearly, the nature of eInk technology poses physical constrains on what can be achieved. Since the lights is the one hitting the screen (from the ambiance) and it is reflected it is not possibile to create colors and nuances that are not present in the ambient light. Furthermore, the more intense the ambient light and the more reflection can take place. On a cloudy day everything takes up a shade of grey, and so will be for the images being displayed.

In this sense I do not think that color eInk will displace LCD screens but it will surely contribute to increase the number of eBook reader on the market.

Several teachers we are cooperating with in our Future of Learning project are adamant on the fact that they need color in textbook and are refusing to adopt eInk technology because of that. Probably the availability of these new eReaders may foster their adoption at school.

eBook readers are experiencing a growing success. The debate is on to get a Kindle like device having a black and white reflective screen you can easily use on the sundeck or to get an iPad like device sporting great colours through a back illuminated LCD that looks great in the shadow but becomes useless in the sun. Clearly the solution to appease everyone is to have a colour reflective screen! There are, as a matter of fact several prototypes but the result is not as good as one would wish. The problem is that the colour dots on a reflective screens are only as good as the light reflected is. You get good colours but you have to sit on the sundeck, no shadow please.
That’s not convenient. Now, researchers from HP have created a new material that promise to meet the challenge. This material comes in different flavour; one is able to convert blue and green light into red, another converts blue light into green. Each pixel (made with this material) is covered by a fast switching liquid crystal shutter letting in or blocking out the light. Mirrors placed below each pixel let the light escape when no reflection is desired.
As it can be grasped by this sketchy representation of the structure of the screen the mechanism is quite complex and that means, today, low resolution and high production cost. But everyone remembers how costly was that flat screen television that is now living in our kitchen! So let’s wait and see. The fact that researchers are still looking into alternative ways to develop screens is showing that we have not reached the point where everything is done….

http://www.technologyreview.com/computing/25809/?nlid=3247

eReaders have started to hit the mass market. After the success of the Kindle reader several others have appeared to compete on a growing market. Those eReaders were (are) based on eInk technology, very good for reading in the sunshine but with a long switching time making it impossible to display video. Besides, no colour can be displayed.

A few months ago Apple released the iPad. A wonderful screen (LCD technology) but a bit heavier (it consumes more power, hence it requires a heavier battery) and difficult to read in the sunshine.

Can we hope for a mixture of these characteristics, a technology easy on the eyes, providing a bright and beautiful screen supporting colours and video and with a low power consumption?

An American start up, Pixtronix, http://www.pixtronix.com/ , claims it has the right technology to fulfil this hope: their screen is backlit, like an LCD, but also reflects ambient light thus supporting an easier to read monochrome mode.

MEMS for a single pixel - Pixtronix technology

Each pixel in the display is made up of a tiny silicon shutter based on a micro-electromechanical system (MEMS). This shutter open and close to emit red, blue and green light in sequence creating the illusion of colours. When the shutter is closed we see … black.

Unlike LCD screens this technology does not require filters, polarizing films or liquid crystal. Hence the backlight illumination can be less intense and consume much less power, 25% of a typical LCD screen. When the backlight illumination is turned off the pixel reflects the ambient light when open, and it is black when closed.

I have already reported of the Mirasol Technology, by Qualcomm. The Mirasol technology is even less power consuming since it does not require backlighting but the quality of video display is low, with a grainy image.

Pixtronix is not alone in its search for new technologies to display text, images, video and we can rest assured that our hopes for the perfect screen will be met, soon.

At the Society for Information Display Conference in Seattle eInk, the producer of black and white screen for eBook Readers demonstrated a colour prototype. Those who had the opportunity of seeing it are pointing out that it is not really a full colour screen, as one we are used to see with the LCD technology, but it is no longer black and white and is easy on the eyes. Today Qualcomm technology Mirasol, http://mirasoldisplays.com , can produce better colour, still using light reflective display, but eInk is certainly moving forward.
According to them, we can expect a commercial product early next year. That would be sooner than the expected availability of Mirasol. eInk has abandoned the idea of creating micro bubbles containing the subtractive colours (yellow, magenta and cyan). Rather they are using still black and white micro beads with a coloured filter superimposed. They are looking for whiter and blacker beads to improve the colour gamut.  These new screens should also be able to display video since they have managed to have a much faster switching.

http://www.technologyreview.com/blog/editors/25251/?ref=rss

Take a look at a video of this prototype:

http://link.brightcove.com/services/player/bcpid42529855001?bctid=88749647001

It may take some time but eventually we should be able to read colour books with reflective screens. The advantage over iPad like screen is they will be lighter, will have lower consumption, and should be more robust, not having any glass surface.

Clearly the image quality that an iPad screen is providing will be very difficult to match by a reflective screen but, IMHO, they will carve a good market portion and I can see several people, like myself, having one of each.

eBook readers are the talk of the town. They have been around for quite a while but it is just after the success of Kindle that a variety of manufacturers have started to create new ones at a rapid pace. There are over 20 readers on the market and my bet is that we are going to see hundreds of them within the next two years. Most will look alike but still the variety will increase.

Whereas a netbook can work on battery for 5 hours, an eReader needs to survive for over 10 hours on battery alone. This place some stringent requirement on consumption. The low consumption today is achieved through black and white screen with low refresh rate, so low indeed that it is impossible to show movies.

Now Freescale Semiconductor, the largest chip manufacturer (that is likely to have produced the chips for the cell phone you own) has announced it has developed a new chip that will increase battery life, support larger colour screen and can flip pages at double the speed of today (still not sufficient to show movies).

This chip is expected to cost 10$ (if you buy hundreds of thousands of them) to eReader manufacturers and that should reduce the cost of an eReader by 30 to 50$. Couple it with the expected decrease of the screen and you should be able to buy a Kindle for about 150$ by next year.

The other good news (in electronics you get always more good news) is that the new chip (called i.MX508) integrates the eInk controller and shall improve touch capability and support multiple applications on the device (e.g. you may download a new book and read another one at the same time).

http://www.physorg.com/news186740637.html

I would expect significant progress in eReaders as volumes increases and more competing manufacturers flex their muscles. However, what I see as the really important evolution is people getting used to have bigger screens in their hands. This can really create a parallel market to the cell phones. This is the real next big thing: having a physical window in my hand (I con touch and interact with) that bridges the reality around me with the internet. Say bye bye to netbooks: it may take few more years by in my mind I cannot imagine a netbook in my hand by 2020. I will have just a nice, thin, large screen.

Yes, the iSlate has appeared as an iPad. It looks great, no question about. I saw it just through the Internet as most of you and definitely I think I am gonna love it.

There have been thousands of posts on the iPad, and everything I guess it has been said. So why a yet another post on the iPad? That’s because I am looking to exploit eBook readers in college as a discontinuity to change learning. I have immedetely looked at the iPad under that perspective, particularly because 9 teachers out of 10 tell me they want colour, as they got used to have in school books. Some of them called me up during the week end to tell me: this is it!

Well, I don’t think so.

The screen is not using Qi technology, that is is not a dual screen working with LCD and eInk llike technology. You are not going to read the iPad on the beach. True, school is not on the beach but it is not just about the sun. It is also about kids.

The Kindle breed are intrinsecally much more robust than LCD screens, drop one of these and you are likely to throw away the device, as many have experienced with the iPhone. In addition, reading an LCD screen is more demanding on the eyes than reading an eInk based screen.

Another factor is the battery. It is marvellous to have it lasting 12 hours (I would like to double check that once you have WiFi and 3G on) but it is way less than a eInk Book Reader. It is not a problem with the design of the iPad, of course, it is a problem with the type of screen used.

Finally, the price. It is great for an iPad, I think it is not for an eBook Reader to be used by kids. At that level of price many teachers will wonder: why should I pay more than a notebook?

So, my pick is that I will personally rush to get one, but it will not percolated class room anytime soon.

OK, the CES is over and we can look at the announcements made (and products displayed) there in the growing eBook readers’ market.

The long awaited Plastic Logic eReader QUE

The long awaited Plastic Logic Que is here (well, almost, it will be shipping in April).

It is using organic transistor technology for the first time in the consumer market. It has a large screen, 11″, but it also has a heavy price: 649US$ for the WiFi version, 799$ for the one including 3G connectivity.

QUE is not the only new eReader presented at the CES. There were several others, some with a double screen, one black and white based on eInk technology, the other with colour, based on LCD. Most newcomers only had the black and white screen focussing on book reading.

Some market analysts are skeptics on the economic return in a market that is getting pretty crowded, others are forecasting a spectacular growth, 14 million eReaders to be sold in 2010. We’ll see.

Personally, I feel it will be a success in terms of adoption and my personal bet is that most of us will have an eReader by the middle of this decade as we have an Mp3 player today. Will companies selling the hardware be the one to benefit or the one selling content?

Technology is going to evolve in the next few years as well: eInk technology, the one used for its very low energy consumption for eBook readers’ screen, is black and white (it provides gray shades too). A colour version is in the working in labs but so far it does not seem likely to see it in real products anytime soon.

However other technologies may become available to colour our electronic books, such as the one showcased by Mirasol. It is based on the same nanotech used by butterflies wings: the light is reflected by the scales on the wing, each covered by nanoparticles that scatter the light into colours.

According to Mirasol they are working on this principle to provide a very low consumption eBook screen (as low as the current ones) able to display vivid colours. So far they ony presented a mock up, not even a prototype, so we are still in the vaporware domain.

We’ll have to wait and see. Clearly a colour screen will accelerate the adoption of this paper substitute, and the colour may be particularly interesting in education applications. Besides, we are waiting for January 26th when Apple, according to stronger and stronger rumors, may be announcing the iSlate, a hybrid between an eReader and a Computer/smart phone.

Interesting the comment from an analyst summing up the booming of eBook Readers at CES: “it doesn’t matter how many readers are available; until there won’t be an ecosystem where they can thrive we are not going to see a real market out there. Kindle and a few others will be winning market share not because they are better but because they are a distribution chain for the content of Amazon, Barn and Noble and the likes”.

I share this view, althought I feel that some vertical markets, like education, can provide a boost for ereaders and be the ones to stimulate the aggregation of an ecosystem.

Rumors are out on the release of a Barnes & Noble’s eReader. It has color, or so goes the word of mouth. The first (stolen) pictures show a color part of the screen but it is just the one used for interaction. The part with the text is black and white.

A stolen image of the new Barnes and Noble eBook reader

We have to wait few more hours to see it for real. It is however interested to notice the amazing speed new models are appearing. Reminds me of the digital frame for pictures a few years ago. For a while there were only a few and then all of a sudden an avalanche of new products became available, at lower and lower prices. The alleged pricing for the B&N eReader is reportedly $259.

And the Plastic Logic one is just round the corner (or the year) as announced few days ago. The specs are impressive, full color, full connectivity, larger size…small price!

UPDATE!!!!  No more rumors, it is out. Check it at http://www.barnesandnoble.com/nook/compare/