There has been an ongoing discussion in press articles, on blogs, and in social media on the topic of what E Ink means to books; and what tablets mean to E Ink.
As the company whose electronic paper is credited with the explosive growth of the eReader market, we have a few thoughts on this subject…
When E Ink started into the eReader space, there was no compelling device that combined a great reading experience with a wide range of content.
In the early 2000, there were some LCD-based eReaders & tablets on the market, but the displays were much thicker, heavier, less color saturated and lower resolution than they are today. Flat screen devices had not yet reached a price point that enabled wide market adoption. Some of us did read on our computer monitors and laptops, but studies showed that most people printed their emails and reading materials, again, due to a sub-par reading experience. In addition, these devices were not easily portable, had poor sunlight reading experiences and a short battery life. And lastly, content was not readily available outside of some smaller publishing houses and independent providers. The combination of these factors ensured that LCD based eReaders and tablets remained a novel product for technology evaluators, and had little to no impact on print book sales.
