Another day, another color kindle rumor. This one’s based on a color eInk screen displayed at a trade show in Shenzhen, China.
Color eReader screen that might form basis of a color kindle
PC World report on the demo of a 6″ color eInk screen in China by Prime View International (PVI). PVI are the company that acquired eInk, the makers of the Kindle’s screen, in 2009. If it’s being demoed by PVI there’s a high chance it’ll make its way to a Kindle sooner or later.
The relevant details on the color eInk screen are -
- 6″ screen that supports color and animations. Animations work the way a flip-through book would i.e. you just flip through individual images – It’s nowhere near movie quality.
- PVI said they’d shown the color screen technology to Amazon and B&N.
- PVI also said they have supplied partners with a few screens and expect mass production of products using color eInk to start this year. That’s certainly interesting.
- PVI will start mass producing color screens in Q4, 2010.
- No comments on whether Amazon would use the color screen technology.
- Color screens use an extra layer of color-filtering glass on top of normal eInk. They consume more battery, but not much more.
We’ve been getting a slow trickle of information on color eInk and it’s time someone actually released an eReader with a color screen in the USA.
PVI’s touch and flexible eInk screens
PVI has more than just color eInk in its bag of tricks -
PVI also displayed three kinds of e-reader touch screens and two flexible e-reader screens.
The touch screens would let users scribble notes into their e-books with a stylus or finger, while the flexible screens, made from plastic rather than glass, would make e-reader screens lighter and harder to break when dropped.
Again, PVI said that Amazon had already been shown these screen technologies.
It’s quite impressive that eInk’s touchscreen supports both stylus and finger input. That would allow it to be used not only for touchscreen navigation and page turning but also for handwritten notes and journalling.
Will we see a color Kindle in 2010?
PVI seem to be saying – The writing’s on the wall. Amazon know about the color screens. We’ll be mass producing the screens by the end of the year and devices using the screens will be in mass production by the end of the year.
However, they’ve been displaying color eInk prototypes since 2005 and promising more than they deliver since 2008. It’s hard to say if a color Kindle will arrive this year – sometime in the first half of 2011 seems a safer bet.
PVI saying that they’ll be mass producing 6″ color eInk screens by Q4, 2010 is as unambigious a statement as they can make. It’s interesting that they won’t comment on whether Amazon will release a color eReader and at the same time keep mentioning that they are showing Amazon and B&N their technology.
Is it a hint that we’ll see color Kindles and color Nooks by Q4, 2010?
Who knows. If PVI have a color eInk screen in mass production by end of this year we can be pretty sure one or more of the latest Kindle, Sony Reader, and Nook will use it.
It’s also interesting that there are rival rumors of a color Kindle using Mirasol technology arriving in Fall 2010.
What impact does the arrival of the iPad have on color eReader timelines?
Despite the iPad being an iEverything it’s interesting to see lots of people call it an eReader. Its arrival certainly puts pressure on Amazon and other eReader companies to match its features. That pressure explains the announcement of the Kindle App Store and the raise in authors’ share of book revenues to 70%.
Which leaves us with a few other features that are worth matching – the color screen, good note-taking ability, the touchscreen, and perhaps WiFi and ePub support.
Color, touch and note-taking are probably the highest priority features - Amazon recently bought a company called TouchCo with some rather interesting touchscreen technology and PVI is saying they’ll be mass-producing color eInk by end of 2010. It all adds up to a very compelling color Kindle 3 (or perhaps 4 if a black and white, touch enabled Kindle 3 arrives first).
Filed under: Color Kindle Reader Tagged: | color kindle, kindle 3
