The Kindle was the icebreaker but a new flood of e-paper devices will soon be here. The Swedes are betting that environmental issues and new color displays will create demand worldwide.
Swedish innovators have been working on the next generation of e-paper devices for nearly six years, with the hopes that their new ideas could be brought to market within a decade. With the latest e-paper developments, including color displays, it looks like this new technology is on track and, after hitting the marketplace, may rival Amazon’s Kindle as the written word continues to move into the digital domain.
It is hoped that 2010 will be the breakthrough year for e-paper as a serious mass medium. The technology of flexible color displays are driving this advance, along with faster download/refresh speeds and greater interactivity with mobile phones and PDAs.
Scandinavian developers have hosted extensive focus groups, surveys and workshops with Swedish readers, advertisers and developers - and three major conclusions were reached to help move their research and innovation forward:
- Advertisers believed that with color displays, e-paper devices could become
opportunities for revenue generation. - Many readers would be willing to pay for an e-paper service, because it offers a more relaxed and book-like reading experience than a computer display, is mobile, and can be easily updated with new reading material.
- Many readers also expressed environmental concerns about the worldwide printing and distribution of newspapers and would opt for an environmentally low-impact alternative.
Innovation in the Pipeline
Swedish developers believe it will take about a year from now for flexible color e-paper display technology to hit the device market. They’re hoping two important advances take place simultaneously:
- The creation of a distribution channel, which includes all newspapers, magazines and books distributed for e-paper devices. In other words, an electronic newsstand with a more standardized technique than the Kindle (that only works in the US).
- The creation of a true user-friendly interface that emphasizes easy downloads, excellent design and intuitive navigation.
Something for Everyone
While conventional wisdom may believe that e-paper devices will be most popular with younger consumers, the acceptance of the e-paper technology is not necessarily a generational issue. Among Swedish focus groups, many people over 50 indicated they would embrace this new channel. Initial acceptance, however, is likely to be higher among younger consumers, for two reasons: 1. Adds new value to the newspaper-reading experience and 2. Addresses the environment concern of the younger consumer.
In 2007 The Centre for Sustainable Communications at Royal Institute of Technology, KTH Stockholm, published a report designed to explore the environmental impact of various publishing technologies: traditional “ink-on-paper” publishing, web-based publishing and e-paper publishing. The conclusion was that the e-paper based publishing and distribution was far more environmentally friendly than ink on paper, and also much better than web-based reading - very important for the young generation.
For some, however, belief in growth of the e-paper device market is hampered by the existing technology of mobile phones, which many people now rely on for news and information, in addition to communication. The larger reading area of a newly designed e-paper device, however, promises to make the act of reading more accessible and comfortable. With time, larger e-paper displays may find themselves incorporated into cell phone development - with a flexible e-paper display size of at least 4 inches.
There is little doubt among developers, marketers or consumers that this new channel will create a revolution in the media market. It is likely to have the same impact as when CD/DVD technology took over the music and movie market. In the very near future, newspapers, magazines and books - as well as all kinds of literature - will no longer be limited to paper but digitally published on e-paper.
By Svenåke Boström
svenake.bostrom@st.nu
Svenåke Boström is the Media Development Manager for the Swedish Newspaper Sundsvalls Tidning, one of the first newspaper’s in the world to produce digital feeds for e-paper devices. He is an ardent spokesperson for e-paper technologies, and in the last 5 years has been involved with several different projects related to e-paper and newspapers of the future.
Let the innovations come! It could only benefit us that more and more companies and countries get into e-Paper, it would ensure more research and lower costs in the future!
“The creation of a true user-friendly interface that emphasizes easy downloads, excellent design and intuitive navigation.”
This should be very welcome indeed, I wonder when it would come out of the pipeline!
The Swedes are remarkable!
Here are some statistics which helps to support the case:
According to the Newspaper Association of America, in 2006 the US consumed approximately 9.6 million tons of newsprint, which is nearly 25 percent of all newsprint produced globally. Of this, over six million tons were made using virgin wood fibers. To put this in perspective, this is nearly equal to the virgin fiber requirements of the US book, magazine, and catalog sectors combined. Given the magnitude of the newspaper industry, its impacts are significant: 2006 demand for newsprint in the US consumed 95 million trees, generated 126 billion gallons of waste water, and emitted 73 billion pounds of greenhouse gases.
[...] Color. E-Ink and other e-paper manufacturers will likely get color displays to market in 2010, Wilcox said — something that could help with a potential advertising [...]
what a revolution beyone my expetation and imagination;that is also a saulvation for us to the natural enviroment.
For centuries, paper was a rare and precious commodity. Today, paper is a fundamental part of life and its existence is taken for granted. Each year, the world produces more than 300 million tons of paper