Amazon.com Inc.'s Kindle has turned a long underperforming category of tech gadget -- e-book readers -- into an overnight hit, and in the process has boosted interest in electronic paper display (EPD) technology. The Kindle and its rival, the Sony Reader 505, both boast e-paper displays that look unnervingly like printed pages and consume next to no power. However, today's EPDs -- and today's e-book readers -- are only the beginning.
EPD technology has been a long time coming. The idea of e-paper, a data display that looks and works like a sheet of paper, has been around for decades. In theory, such a screen could be "printed" electronically, would hold its contents without consuming power, could be viewed using reflected light (rather than the backlight required for LCD screens), and could be "erased" and "rewritten" as often as desired.
Kindle
Amazon's Kindle has brought EPD technology into the public eye.
Current products like the Kindle -- a clever mix of features, including a low-power processor, inexpensive flash memory, built-in EVDO wide-area networking and, of course, an e-paper display that consumes next to no power -- have finally brought the technology into the public eye. "E-book readers have gotten the world excited about e-paper," says Barry Young, an analyst at market research firm DisplaySearch.
But although the technology behind e-paper displays has improved greatly over time, it's still just on the threshold of real success, according to Young and other observers. Displays like the Kindle's are beginning to provide the contrast and resolution of traditional ink on paper, but physical flexibility and full-color display are still around the corner.