The Future of Documents

The big news in e-books this week is obviously the launch of Kindle to the rest of the world - obviously. Kindle Review has all the information you might need, including review, international wireless coverage, or even a comparison between the Kindle international and Kindle US - although the conclusion is pretty obvious.

Sure, lots of other stuff has happened, amongst which iRex’s new product, being delivered by Best Buy. But to me, the most important recent news in e-book is a bit older: for the first time, the Kindle edition of a major book outsells hardcovers on Amazon! And not a small book, for that matter – Dan Brown’s books are usually very popular. We’re really at a tipping point in book and document history, and its transition to digital media.

Kindle Review has two very interesting posts for anyone that is interested in ePaper and eBook / eReader technologies.

The State of ePaper lists most (if not all) of the technologies that are currently in play for next-generation eReaders. Beyond eInk’s technology, the this post lists most of the runner-ups, and compares their technology with the current champion. Whether LCD-derived technologies (Pixel Qi), Color (Bridgestone, Fujitsu), or many others, the post explains the differences and illustrates with videos, when applicable.

The State of the eReader lists  the key characteristics of eReaders (price, screen technology, usability, social aspects, and many more) and for each of those reviews the current state (”best-of-breed” products) as well as what the ideal eReader should be.

Excellent and very impressive work putting all this together and analyzing it – definitely worth reading for anyone that has interest in the future of eReaders !

Maybe not. In this article, “E-Texts Receive Mixed Reviews From Students“, the Wall Street Journal describes a few experiments with e-books as student textbooks.

Some found the affordances of electronic documents (e.g. keyword searching) a major improvement over hardcopy textbooks. Weight, up-to-date versions of documents, and (at least in theory) lower price were also some of the qualities that were invoked.

However, dozens of the students dropped out of the e-Textbook programs, complaining the devices were awkward and inconvenient, and sometimes too fragile. They are “great if you’re using them on a beach or on an airplane, but not fully functional for a learning environment”, according to some. Even worse, the actual price (including the high entrypoint for the hardware, but also the actual price per book – which ends up often close to the hardcopy version) was also a major turndown.

A study from the Student Public Interest Research Group concluded that 75% of students would still prefer print to digital texts…

However, these are just first generations of textbooks. Future generations, with real annotation capabilities, no “flashing” of displays when refreshing, and closer to real paper physical format, should gain more traction from students… But this will take time.

Consolidation is hitting the e-Paper market, too. Prime View International (PVI) just announced their intention to acquire E-Ink for $215 million.

PVI reinforces its position as a vertically-integrated key player in the e-Paper market, as it acquired the e-paper business of Philips Electronics in 2005, and other companies such as Hydis Technologies, a transistor backplane provider components.

Despite a difficult beginning for the year, PVI expects electrophotoretic displays shipments to double over in 2H09. This acquisition is an extension of a four-year partnership, throughout which the two companies produced displays for many devices such as the Sony Reader and the Kindle 2.

The market for e-book devices is expected to explode, from 1.1 million unit in 2008 to 20 million units in 2012, according to iSuppli. This should be supported by major players are also joining that space, as Google announced yesterday that they intend to retail e-books by the end of the year.

It’s always nice to hear others refer to the ePaper original invention … and realize it comes from Xerox, in the 70s ( more precisely at PARC in 1974) – including a picture of one of the first ePaper sample.

This interesting blog post also mentions Fuji Xerox’s color ePaper prototype, which I already blogged upon in the past. The original article it refers to, “The Future of Electronic Paper” is worth reading again.

For all the ePaper and eBook afficionados, a new site was launched last week – Gutenberg.com is the self-proclaimed “central resource for ebook lovers, ebook newbies, and the ebook industry”.

One of their most interesting posts to date are the “20 Reasons Why 2009 Will Be the Year of the Ebook” – an answer to my post earlier this year. Reading through those reasons, some of them more disputable than others, but worth checking out. I strongly invite interested readers to consult them and leave comments, like I did.

The e-Paper market is slowly (but surely) moving.

iRex has annouced its new product, the iRex Digital Reader 1000, a 10.2″ e-Paper reader which weights between 500 and 600g. That is a major step from such current displays which are 6 to 8″. The entry version will come without a pen-driven interface, but the real interesting version will be the ones that come with stylus-based tactile interface (developed through their partnership with Wacom), and or the top-of-the-range model which adds WiFi and Bluetooth capabilities.

Sony has just announced its new PRS-700 e-Reader. It adds LED lighting capabilities, a touch-screen interface, and a zippier interface. On the not so positive side though, it is still only a 6-inch screen, and does not have wireless capabilities.

But a major player to watch is Plastic Logic.  The UK-based company has raised over 200 M$ to build an e-Paper facility in Dresden (Germany) which opened in September. It will be launching its own soft e-Paper reader first half of 2009. Although not quite foldable as real paper yet, their reader looks like a rather rigid cardboard A4 sheet with touch interface. Make sure you check out their cool video.

Both are still Black & White, and based on e-Ink e-Paper technology, which predicts they will have production version of a display that offers newspaper-like color in 2010.

Also promising is Liquavista, a spinout of Philips Research lab, is now investigating how its electrowetting technology (used on mobile phone screens) can be used for e-Paper. Indeed, their technology could bring both color and video capability. They have been funded through a £12m collaborative project from the Technology Strategy Board to develop lightweight, foldable and low-consumption e-Paper displays.