The (usually monochrome) e-paper technology is used commonly in all kinds of e-readers due to the ultra-low power usage.
Bridgestone, one of the largest makers of these screens, now gives up on them:
Tokyo (May, 15 2012) — Bridgestone Corporation today announced plans to withdraw from electronic paper business.
The company has made this decision after careful consideration of its options and in accordance with its management principal of “selection and concentration” which Bridgestone is implementing to put an increased focus on its core businesses to provide maximum value to its customers and shareholders. Due to increasing competition and rapidly declining prices in the liquid crystal panel business, the company decided that the best course of action for its overall business is to exit the electronic paper market.
Exact timing for the withdrawal is still being determined but the company expects to conclude its production of electronic paper by the end of October 2012.
Even though thus sounds quite a bit strange at first glance, it does make sense – according to optometricists, the backlit OLED screens are more comfortable (read: more ergonomically) to read when looking at textual information. In addition to that, e-paper is unusable when it comes to creating smart tablets which are to run operating systems like Android – let’s see what this will lead us to…
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