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Plane to Line Switching (PLS) screen technology (Samsung)
Crisis Message of Aug 29, 2015 from Hunbiased: Immigration which I very much felt to share here before anything else of my own: “ Immigration is *the* topic in the news in Hungary. It’s what all newscasts lead with and it’s the issue that dominates the front pages. How bad is the situation? I take a look at some basic figures to see whether or not the current EU policies regarding immigration are fair and answer the question, “if Hungary is expected to absorb 140,000 people without batting an eyelid, how many people should Germany and the UK take?” ”
Plane to Line Switching (PLS) screen technology (Samsung)
Microsoft gives Samsung Windows 8 developer PCs to Build attendees, AT&T throws in 3G service [engadget, Sept 13, 2011]
… that PC comes complete with a second-gen Intel Core i5 processor, an 11.6-inch 1,366 x 768 Samsung Super PLS display, a 64GB SSD, 4GB of RAM, and a dock with a USB, HDMI and Ethernet ports.
[PLS-LCD only introduced in North America for the Galaxy 10.1 Tablet:] What Are The Benefits Of Using A PLS-LCD In My Wi-Fi GT-p7510 Galaxy 10.1 Tablet? [Samsung FAQ, Aug 6, 2011]
The GT-p7510 tablet comes with PLS-LCD touchscreen panel technology. The Plane to Line Switching technology is roughly 10% brighter (should help with better visibility in sunlight) and offers about 2x the increase in wide angle viewing compared to certain other LCD technologies. In addition, PLS-LCD offers the following below:
- Higher Contrast
- Decreased Power Consumption
- Response Time Faster
- Lesser Reflection
- Clearer Screen
Due to the cost of Super AMOLED displays, PLS-LCD was used in the GT-p7510 to remain price competitive in the marketplace with the 10.1 inch display.
PLS LCD @ Samsung SA850 [Feb 27, 2011]
New PLS (Plane to Line Switching) LCD technology by Samsung will be used in its professional monitors SA850
SyncMaster™ SA850 Series 27″ LED Monitor [June 27, 2011]
Samsung S27A850D 27” LED Monitor [March 21, 2011]
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See perfect colours from wherever you sit
Maximise your viewing experience with Samsung’s superior PLS technology (Plane to Line Switching). Regular screens suffer from what is called Colour Shift, which reduces the picture quality and colour when viewed from an acute angle. The SA850, which can cover an amazing 178° viewing angle both vertically and horizontally, boasts a crisp and detailed picture by maintaining true-to-life colour, even when viewed from extreme angels, so the experience is vivid and brilliant.…
Samsung to Release LED Monitors with Super PLS, Best Fit for Specialists [SamsungTomorrow, Aug 23, 2011]
Samsung Electronics is to release three models of new LED monitor (S27A850, S24A650 and S24A350T) applying cutting-edge Super PLS (Plane to Line Switching) technology — which makes it possible for a viewer to watch in much wider viewing angles than models in the market.
The new LED monitors employed LED panels thus realizing Samsung TV’s iconic features like vivid resolution and eco-friendliness. This monitor line-up is said to be best fitting for professional users. The SyncMaster SA850, for example, is a 27-inch monitor, has a screen aspect ratio of 16:9 and a native resolution of 2560×1440 pixels. Such products are highly interesting in my opinion.
Samsung launches Evolutional Central Station and LED Monitor Lineup with Ultra High Quality LED Panels for Enterprises [Samsung press release, June 21, 2011]
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Samsung SyncMaster SA850 series deploys Samsung’s own display technology, PLS panel, which covers 100% sRGB color space, providing excellent image output with the highest color accuracy. This is best-designed for industries such as graphic designs, publishing, filming and broadcasting. PLS panel also provides 178° wide viewing angle (both horizontally and vertically), and it enables users to view high quality images from any viewing positions. The Gamma Distortion Index of the PLS is less than 0.15, which meets the high demands of all users for the highest quality and flawless image.
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Samsung SyncMaster SA850 is the first to implement Samsung’s own PLS panel. It has a 27″ WQHD screen which covers 100% sRGB color space, fulfilling the high requirements for image quality and color accuracy of professional users, such as photographers, architectures and advertising practitioners. PLS panel also delivers energy saving features. Comparing to conventional LCD monitor, its LED-backlight can save power consumption up to 36%. The 27″ 2048 x 1152 WQHD screen allows 178° wide viewing angle and produces vivid images with richer color.
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Samsung to showcase TFT-LCD vs PLS-LCD vs Super-Amoled-Plus [Feb 22, 2011]
http://www.oled-display.net At the MWC-2011 Samsung show a comparison between a ordinary TFT-LCD against PLS-LCD (IPS type) and the brand new Super-Amoled-PLUS Display. More about OLED-Displays at http://www.oled-display.net
Samsung SyncMaster SA850: World’s First Monitor on PLS Matrix [X-bit labs, May 30, 2011]
Over a year ago Samsung made an attempt to introduce an alternative to mainstream TN-based products by releasing monitors with C-PVA matrixes. The SyncMaster F2080 and F2380 were not much of a success, however. Although Samsung claims that corporate users were eager to buy them, these models were not interesting for home users due to their high response time and some color rendering problems. Later on, Dell and some other brands introduced their e-IPS based products which met the mainstream requirements by having a reasonable price and well-balanced specs.
In late 2010 Samsung responded to e-IPS with its PLS technology. The name itself (it spells out as Plane-to-Line Switching) was quite a surprise for specialists because it was not a variant of the proprietary PVA technology but seemed to resemble IPS matrixes which were produced by Samsung’s largest competitor LG.
PLS technology was at first advertized as a solution for tablet PCs and mobile phones (high-quality matrixes are quite popular in these devices thanks to Apple’s backing and LG’s active participation) but then one monitor from the new 8 series, namely SyncMaster SA880, was declared to have a PLS matrix.
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Closer Look at Samsung’s Super PLS Matrix
Although the Super PLS technology (I will call it simply “PLS” below) was introduced by Samsung back in December 2010, there is still very little information disclosed about it. PLS matrixes were first showcased as displays of mobile devices. It was even rumored that Apple took a fancy to PLS and would use it in its iPad 2 (the rumors were wrong; the iPad 2 comes with IPS matrixes). In February, some scraps of information about the first full-featured PLS-based monitor, specs and photos, emerged.
We could only make guesses as to what the new matrix was like. PLS stands for Plane-to-Line Switching which sounds similar to IPS (In-Plane Switching), so PLS was supposed to be Samsung’s version of IPS. Samsung itself compared PLS with IPS, but that didn’t prove anything. The various versions of PVA matrixes were compared to IPS as well, just because IPS matrixes are manufactured by LG, Samsung’s largest competitor. Anyway, the comparisons put an emphasis on such facts as excellent viewing angles, lack of off-angle color distortions (tonal shift), a higher brightness and a lower cost.
It must be noted that we’ve already got a successor to the IPS technology which features a higher brightness and a lower cost. It is e-IPS which is manufactured by LG and is quickly gaining in popularity. The main downside, and not a very serious one, is that black gets lighter when the screen is viewed from a side.
For you to better understand the numerous types of modern LCD matrixes, I’ll just put down their highs and lows in this brief list:
- TN: low price, low response time (below 5 milliseconds GtG), average contrast ratio (600:1), poor viewing angles (especially vertical ones), significant off-angle color distortions.
- IPS: high price, average response time (5 to 10 milliseconds GtG), average contrast ratio (600:1), excellent viewing angles, minimal off-angle color distortions.
- PVA: high price, high response time (over 10 milliseconds GtG), high contrast ratio (over 1000:1), good viewing angles, noticeable off-angle color distortions.
- C-PVA: average price, high response time (over 10 milliseconds GtG), high contrast ratio (over 1000:1), good viewing angles, noticeable off-angle color distortions.
- E-IPS: average price, average response time (5 to 10 milliseconds GtG), average contrast ratio (600:1), good viewing angles, minimal off-angle color distortions.
As you can see, e-IPS matrixes are not rivaled directly by any other technology. They are comparable in price to C-PVA matrixes but have different properties. C-PVA matrixes boast a high contrast ratio but are limited in their applications due to their imperfect color rendering and high response time. I wouldn’t dismiss them altogether, yet an LCD matrix with a response time as high as 75 milliseconds can hardly be viewed as suitable for a versatile home monitor.
So, what does Samsung offer us under the name of Super PLS? To answer this question I’ve made macro photographs of pixels of different LCD matrixes.
This is the TN matrix of a Samsung SyncMaster SA950 monitor [the senior 3D model of the home-oriented 9 series … based on a TN matrix with a native resolution of 1920×1080 pixels and a maximum refresh rate of 120 Hz]. We see subpixels of solid colors with slanted corners. When the monitor’s brightness is reduced, the whole of a subpixel keeps on glowing. The photo lacks sharpness a little due to the antiglare coating of the screen (it’s glossy in the SA950, yet affects the quality of the photo anyway).
Here is the PVA matrix of a Dell 2407WFP at full brightness. We can see intricately shaped subpixels with a “waist” in the middle and diagonal segmentation. It’s hard to mistake this one for anything else.
This is the same PVA matrix at half brightness. Again, this matrix type is absolutely different from other technologies. We can see that only the ends of the subpixels are aglow while the middle is turned off.
That’s the e-IPS matrix of a Dell U2311H. The picture is blurred by its antiglare coating, yet we can see that each subpixel consists of two parts with a black line in the middle. The two halves of each subpixel are slightly segmented diagonally, like with PVA. As opposed to PVA, each subpixel is square and does not split in two parts at reduced brightness but keeps on glowing as a single whole.
And this is the PLS matrix of the Samsung SyncMaster SA850. It is obvious that its subpixels are closest to e-IPS. They have the same rectangular shape with a barely visible black line in the middle. It is hard to discern the details because of the monitor’s antiglare coating which, coupled with the small pixel pitch (0.233 millimeters), hindered my photographing. The subpixels of this matrix keep on glowing as a single whole at reduced brightness.
Thus, PLS matrixes do resemble e-IPS in terms of the subpixel structure as far as we can discern it. Let’s see if they also resemble e-IPS (or IPS) in technical properties.
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Brightness and Backlight Uniformity
The monitor’s Brightness and Contrast are set at 100% and 75%, respectively, by default. I achieved my reference point of 100-nit white at 30% Brightness and 48% Contrast.
The monitor regulates its brightness by modulating the power of its LEDs at a frequency of 180 Hz. The SA850 uses a white LED backlight, which helped make its case rather slim and light.
[so the monitor’s brightness is Black 0.58 and White 313 (nits)]
Unfortunately, the contrast ratio isn’t high at below 600:1. This is lower than the typical contrast ratio of e-IPS matrixes (600 to 700:1). The maximum brightness is high but you can easily make the screen as bright as is comfortable to you.
The three available MagicBright modes give you three different levels of brightness. The Cinema mode has a very odd color rendering setup (I’ll talk about them shortly) whereas the Standard and Game modes do not distort colors. For practical purposes, I guess that the monitor should be set up manually for a lower screen brightness than the Standard mode for productivity and Web applications, so you can use Standard for viewing photographs and playing games at night and switch into the Game mode for watching movies and playing games in the daytime.
The low contrast ratio may be due to the poor uniformity of the backlight. The picture based on the results of my measurements shows a bright spot in the center of the screen, just where I measured the contrast ratio. That spot is not as bright as the bottom left corner, though.
Although the extent of the variation in brightness is exaggerated in the picture for illustrative purposes, the monitor is obviously far from ideal, especially with black. Talking about the exact numbers, the average nonuniformity of brightness for black is 8% whereas the maximum deflection from the base level is as high as 45%! For white, the average and maximum are 3.6% and 8.3%, respectively. It’s hard to say why the monitor is so good with white and so poor with black, but the bright spot in the corner of the screen can be considered a defect. It is going to be conspicuous when watching movies, for example.
The viewing angles of the PLS matrix are excellent when the monitor shows a bright colorful image. I could see no color distortion or contrast deterioration even at large viewing angles, both vertically and horizontally.
There was one interesting thing with black. To illustrate it, I made a few photos of the monitor from different angles in a dark room. The monitor works at full brightness and displays a black fill.
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It is easy to see that the screen doesn’t get much brighter when viewed from a side, but the areas with backlight irregularities show some more light. Moreover, each such area has its own particular viewing angle at which it becomes the brightest. For example, the bright spot at the top of the screen moves rightwards in the last two photos.
For the comparison’s sake I will show you photos of an e-IPS matrix (Dell U2311H) under the same conditions.
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The brightening of black has nothing to do with backlight irregularities (which have a rather typical X-shaped pattern on this monitor). As the viewing angle gets larger, there appear yellow-colored symmetrical spots in the far corners of the screen. These spots get larger along with the viewing angle.
So, it looks like PLS is indeed superior to e-IPS in terms of viewing angles, especially on black, and can compete with the more expensive samples of IPS matrixes. Besides, my sample of SyncMaster SA850 with a PLS matrix is prevented from showing its best in this parameter by its backlight irregularities. When viewed from a side, its screen gets brighter the most in those areas where the backlight is the most irregular.
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Samsung claims that PLS matrixes with white LED backlight (that’s the kind of the matrix employed in the SA850) cover the entire range of sRGB colors. And that’s indeed so. The monitor’s color gamut triangle matches the sRGB one along one rib and is larger in the other two ribs. Thus, the SA850 is one of the few monitors that you can get an immaculately accurate sRGB gamut with by creating an appropriate profile with a calibrator and using that profile in your image-editing application.
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The Samsung SyncMaster SA850 with its Super PLS matrix is not an ideal monitor, but it’s good.
Samsung has indeed begun to manufacture LCD matrixes which are similar to IPS and capable of competing with e-IPS in price and beating them in specs, especially in terms of viewing angles. PLS matrixes do not have the annoying effect of e-IPS ones which show a brighter black when viewed from a side. Considering the comparable price, PLS makes a more appealing option.
On the other hand, it is yet too early to talk about any competition with e-IPS on the market of desktop monitors. PLS is only going to be available in a single product so far. And while the 27-inch SA850 (S27A850) is interesting due to its high resolution, it can hardly challenge mainstream 21.5- and 23-inch e-IPS based monitors.
It should also be noted that Samsung becomes the only company to produce LCD matrixes of all possible types: TN, VA (C-PVA for the SyncMaster F2380 and S-PVA for TV-sets and large info boards), and now PLS which is functionally similar to IPS technology. This may be due to the company’s ongoing search for the most promising and demanded solutions. Instead of making its decisions in labs and at internal meetings, the company releases products with all technologies available to it in order to check out the reaction of real users. This approach brings about more choices but, on the other hand, the buyer may easily get confused.
As for the SyncMaster SA850, this particular product seems quite competitive to me.
Highs:
- Serious exterior design, good functionality and handy controls
- High native resolution
- Low response time, good color rendering, excellent viewing angles
- Full coverage of the sRGB color space
- Matte coating of the screen that is free from glares and graininess
- Three digital inputs and a USB 3.0 hub
- Ambient lighting sensor
Lows
- Low contrast ratio
- Poor uniformity of backlight for black
Even now, three months prior to its official release, this model has more highs than lows. If the manufacturer gets rid of the backlight irregularities, the SyncMaster SA850 will easily become one of the best products in its class and an indispensible solution for people who need a high resolution and good color rendering but cannot afford a 30-inch monitor. The SA850 will also be good as a versatile home monitor.
I hope that PLS matrixes will go beyond 27-inch monitors and into 23-inch and 24-inch products at prices comparable to those of the same-size e-IPS models. After all, if PLS is planned for such different devices as 10-inch tablet PCs and 27-inch desktop monitors, there must be no technical problems with producing a 23-inch PLS matrix. I’m now waiting for Samsung to release one!
Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1 Review: The Sleekest Honeycomb Tablet [AnandTech, June 13, 2011]
A Beautiful Display
Other than form factor, the 10.1’s display is the only other major advantage Samsung holds over ASUS. While the Eee Pad’s display is quantifiably similar to Apple’s iPad 2, it does fall victim to an incredible amount of glare. There’s a sizable gap between the LCD panel and the outermost glass, which results in more glare than most other tablets we’ve reviewed this generation. The 10.1 however doesn’t suffer this fate and as a result is more directly comparable to the iPad 2.
Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1 (left) vs. ASUS Eee Pad Transformer (right)
Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1 (left) vs. Apple iPad 2 (right)While both ASUS and Apple use an IPS panel in their tablets, Samsung uses its own technology called Super PLS (plane line switching). Brian Klug, our resident smartphone and display guru did some digging and it turns out that Super PLS is Samsung’s own take on IPS that maintains viewing angle while boosting throughput (brightness). The Samsung supplied photo below shows a comparison of the tradeoff you make with S-IPS and I-IPS, as well as both of those compared to Super PLS:
Traditionally you’d have to trade off viewing angle for brightness or vice versa even within the IPS family. Super PLS lets you have your cake and eat it too, giving you the same side viewing angles as S-IPS but with the light throughput of I-IPS.
Perhaps due to the use of Super PLS, Samsung actually managed to outfit the Galaxy Tab 10.1 with a brighter panel than what we saw with the iPad 2. Black levels aren’t quite as good but peak brightness is measurably better at nearly 500 nits. While the display isn’t what I’d consider bright enough to use in direct sunlight, it is more versatile than the iPad 2’s as a result of its brightness.
The higher black levels balance out the brighter panel and deliver a contrast ratio comparable to that of the iPad 2:
I should mention that the quality of the panel on the retail 10.1 sample is significantly better than what I saw with Samsung’s Galaxy Tab 10.1 Limited Edition at Google IO. The sample from IO had noticeably worse black levels, lower peak brightness and as a result lower overall contrast. On top of all of that, the LE suffered light bleed from one of its corners – a problem I haven’t seen on the retail 10.1. With only two Galaxy Tabs to compare this is either an indication of wildly varying quality control, or more likely that Samsung simply repackaged its early samples as LEs and saved the mass production hardware for paying customers a month after Google IO.
As you can see in the shot above the Samsung panel has a considerably cooler white point than the Eee Pad Transformer. A quick measure with our colorimeter shows a white point of 8762 (vs 7805K for the Eee Pad). It does make Samsung’s default wallpaper look very pretty. If you’re wondering, the iPad 2’s panel is calibrated to a 6801K white point – at least with our 16GB CDMA sample here.
Samsung reloaded more possibilities on the go with GALAXY Tab 7.0 Plus [Samsung press release, Sept 30, 2011]
Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd, a leading mobile device provider, today announced the launch of the GALAXY Tab 7.0 Plus. Offering a portable, rich multimedia experience on a 7-inch display, the GALAXY Tab 7.0 Plus packs power and productivity into a chic lightweight design. The GALAXY Tab 7.0 Plus runs Google AndroidTM Honeycomb, enabling an easy and intuitive user experience.
“Samsung pioneered the seven-inch tablet market with the launch of the GALAXY Tab, marking an innovation milestone in the mobile industry. Building on the success of the GALAXY Tab, we’re now delighted to introduce the GALAXY Tab 7.0 Plus reloaded with enhanced portability, productivity and a richer multimedia experience” said JK Shin, President and Head of Samsung’s Mobile Communications Business. He added “GALAXY Tab 7.0 Plus is for those who want to stay productive and in touch with work, friends and content anytime, anywhere.”
Enhanced Portability
With 7-inch display, GALAXY Tab 7.0 Plus provides enhanced portability, weighing just 345g and measuring at just 9.96mm thin. Enhanced portability ensures that it fits easily into an inside-jacket pocket or a handbag, making it an ideal device for those who need to stay productive and entertained while on-the-move.
Advanced Productivity
GALAXY Tab 7.0 Plus delivers a smooth and intuitive user experience with powerful performance powered by 1.2GHz dual core processor. Mini Apps allows seamless multitasking by consolidating 7 applications easily accessed from a bottom-side tray on main screen. Users can launch favorite features such as music player or calendar as pop-ups over full screen applications. Not only that, users can design an individualized up-to-the-minute interface through Live Panel.
Web browsing is also enhanced by Adobe Flash and super-fast HSPA＋ connectivity, providing download speeds up to three times faster than a conventional HSPA connection. On top of that Wi-Fi Channel Bonding bonds two channels into one for improved network connection and data transfer at up to twice the speed.
Furthermore, the GALAXY Tab 7.0 Plus offers voice and video call support, with no need for a headset.
Users can see friends and family from anywhere in the world in high quality thanks to the device’s larger screen.Rich Multimedia on-the-move
Full HD videos can be enjoyed on the 7-inch WSVGA PLS display, with DivX & multi codec support ensuring the device is capable of supporting a variety of different formats. An improved virtual clipboard, which stores text and images enabling easy copy and paste, further adds to these capabilities.
Additionally, the GALAXY Tab 7.0 Plus features Social Hub, Readers Hub and Music Hub services. Social Hub aggregates the user’s contacts, calendar and email along with instant messaging and social networking connections all within one easy-to-use interface. Readers Hub provides e-reading content such as e-books, newspapers and magazines. Music Hub enables access to over 13 million songs even when out and about.
GALAXY Tab 7.0 Plus will be available starting in Indonesia and Austria from end-October and gradually rolled to globally including Southeast and Southwest Asia, US, Europe, CIS, Latin America, Middle East, Africa, and China.
For multimedia content and more detailed information, please visit www.samsungmobilepress.com/
Samsung GALAXY Tab 7.0 Plus Product Specifications
Network
HSPA＋ (HSDPA 21Mbps/HSUPA5.76Mbps) 900/1900/2100EDGE/GPRS 850/900/1800/1900 Processor
1.2GHz Dual Core Display
7-inch WSVGA(1024X600) PLS LCD OS
Android 3.2 (Honeycomb) Camera
Main(Rear) : 3 MP AF with LED Flash
Sub (Front) : 2 MPAction Shot, Panorama Shot, Smile ShotVideo
Codec : MPEG4, Divx, Xvid, H263, H.264, VC-1, WMV7/8, VP8
Format: 3GP,MPEG4, WMV, AVI, MKVPlayback : 1080p Full HD
Recording : 720p HDAudio
Codec : MP3,WMA, AMR-NB, AMR-WB, AAC, AAC＋, e-AAC＋, AC-3, Flac Midi(SMF), WAV, OGG
apt-X Bluetooth Codec
Music Player with SoundAliveValue-added Features
Samsung Apps Samsung Kies 2.0
Samsung Kies air (downloadable via Samsung Apps)Samsung TouchWiz : Live Panel, Mini Apps Social Hub
– Integrated Messaging(Email, SMS, SNS, MMS), Contacts/ Calendar Sync
– POP3/IMAP Email & Exchange Active SyncReaders Hub/Music Hub
(will be available for download via Samsung Apps after launch)Google™ Mobile Services
– Gmail™, Google Talk™, Google Search™, YouTube™, Android Market™,
– Google Maps™Smart Remote Enterprise Solutions Adobe Flash Document Editor Connectivity
Bluetooth® technology v 3.0
USB 2.0 HS & Host
Wi-Fi 802.11 a/b/g/n (2.4 & 5 GHz)
Wi-Fi Channel bonding & Wi-Fi DirectSensor
Accelerometer, Gyro, Digital compass, Ambient Light, Proximity Memory
1GB(RAM) ＋ 16/32GB Internal memory ＋ microSD (up to 32GB) Size
193.65 x 122.37 x 9.96 mm, 345g Battery
Li-on 4,000 mAh
The technical excellence of the new Symbian range from Nokia
Nokia 701 vs Apple iPhone 4 display brightness comparison [Oct 1, 2011]
PhoneArena examines the 1000 nits display on the Nokia 701 via an improvised outdoor comparison with the Apple iPhone 4 and the Samsung Galaxy S II, about which you can read on:
Thousand points of light: the brightest mobile display to date on the Nokia 701 compared [Oct 1, 2011]
If we are asked which feature we’d like improved on current smartphones, apart from the obvious contender battery life, we’d answer screen brightness. Average pixel density we can live with, but the brighter the display the less annoying its outdoor usage, especially if you have that old yellow star shining directly on your phone’s screen while you are trying to quickly look up a contact, or check a website.
The Nokia 701 manages to cram in the brightest screen on a mobile phone to date, which, with its 1000 official nits, is almost 50% easier to see outside than the LG Optimus Black, for example, with its 700 nits, or the previous champion Nokia E6 with its 900 nits. The E6 excels in pixel density, though, with its Retina Display-like 325ppi.
Now let’s cut to the chase and examine this sweet 3.5”LED-backlit IPS-LCD display on the Nokia 701, with 360×640 pixels and the ClearBlack technology, which manages to shine like a crazy diamond with 1000 nits of brightness. In short, having a stronger backlight, or whatever other trick the screen manufacturer is using to make the display brighter, is great outside. Compared to some other phones we put it next to in the sunshine outdoors, it was way more visible at full throttle.
To put things in perspective, we compared the Nokia 701 outside with the Apple iPhone 4, which can hit peak brightness of about 600 nits, not shabby at all, and the Samsung Galaxy S II, which goes up to around 400 nits. Nokia says that due to the ambient light sensor the effect on battery life is minimal, as you won’t always have the screen at peak brightness, but it’s good to have a luminous display when you need it, and we tend to agree. Our unscientific test showed that running an HD movie at full brightness claimed about 30% more juice out of the battery than at average luminousity, but that can be said for most other smartphones as well.
see more in the original article
Background details:
The already announced gradual phase-out of the current Symbian based flagship smartphone line means a significant upgrade first, both in hardware and software capabilities (please note the great hardware commonality as well as the differentiation factors between the different models):
Dhrystone Performance:
- Qualcomm Snapdragon/Scorpion: 2.1 DMIPS/MHz
- Marvell PJ1 Sheeva: 1.46 DMIPS/MHz
- Marvell PJ4 Sheeva: 2.41 DMIPS/MHz
- ARM1136: 1.25 DMIPS/MHz
- Cortex A8: 2.0 DMIPS/MHz
- Cortex A9: 2.5 DMIPS/MHz
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Nokia N701 |
Nokia N700 |
Nokia N600 |
Nokia N500 |
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Display and User Interface |
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| – Screen size: 3.5″- Resolution: 16:9 nHD (640 x 360 pixels)- IPS-LCD- 16 million colours; 160° viewing angle
– ClearBlack display – Corning® Gorilla® Glass – Capacitive touch screen – Orientation sensor (Accelerometer) – Proximity sensor – Ambient light detector |
– Screen size: 3.2″- Resolution: 16:9 nHD (640 x 360 pixels)- AMOLED- 16 million colours
– ClearBlack – Capacitive touch screen – Orientation sensor (Accelerometer) – Proximity sensor – Ambient light detector |
– Screen size: 3.2″- Resolution: 16:9 nHD (640 x 360 pixels)- TFT display- 16 million colours
– Capacitive touch screen – Orientation sensor (accelerometer) – Compass (Magnetometer) – Proximity sensor – Ambient light detector |
– Screen size: 3.2″- Resolution: 16:9 nHD (640 x 360 pixels)- TFT display- 16 million colours
– Capacitive touch screen – Orientation sensor (accelerometer) – Compass (Magnetometer) – Proximity sensor – Ambient light detector |
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Memory |
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| – Internal memory: 8 GB- MicroSD memory card slot, up to 32 GB | – Internal memory: 2 GB- MicroSD memory card slot, up to 32 GB | – Internal memory: 2 GB- MicroSD memory card slot, up to 32 GB | – Internal memory: 2 GB- MicroSD memory card slot, up to 32 GB |
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Data network |
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| – GPRS/EDGE class B, multislot class 33- HSDPA Cat10, maximum speed up to 14.4 Mbps, HSUPA Cat6 5.76 Mbps- GSM CS data 9.6/14.4/HSCSD MSC6- GSM GPRS data class 33, GSM EGPRS data class 33, DTM 32- WLAN IEEE802.11 b/g/n with UPnP support- TCP/IP support- Capability to serve as data modem- Support for MS Outlook synchronisation of contacts, calendar and notes | -GPRS/EGPRS: Class B, MSC 32 (max 6 RX, max TX, max speed UL/DL= 236,80/296 Kbits)- HSDPA 14.4 Mbit/s- HSUPA 5.76 Mbit/s- WLAN IEEE802.11- Capability to serve as data modem- Support for MS Outlook synchronisation of contacts, calendar and notes | – GPRS/EDGE class B, multislot class 33- HSDPA Cat. 10 maximum speed up to 14 Mbit/s, HSUPA Cat. 6 5.7 Mbit/s- WLAN IEEE802.11- Capability to serve as data modem- Support for MS Outlook synchronisation of contacts, calendar and notes | – GPRS/EDGE release 6, class B, multislot class 33- HSDPA Cat10 14.4 Mbps, HSUPA Cat6 5.76 Mbps- WLAN IEEE802.11 b/g- Capability to serve as data modem- Support for MS Outlook synchronisation of contacts, calendar and notes |
See the full hardware specification table in PDF. That table includes the Operating Frequency, Connectivity, Power Management, Camera and Video Cameras aspects of the specification as well.
See the overall Features comparison of these models in PDF as well. Here are the Key Facts are joined by Messaging and communication, Camera, Internet and Media, Connectivity, and Accessories set of features.
Nokia launches three no-compromise mass-market smartphones powered by Symbian Belle [Nokia press release, Aug 24, 2011]
Nokia 700, Nokia 701 and Nokia 600 smartphones introduce latest Symbian software update while new NFC-enabled stereo Bluetooth headset takes advantage of NFC pairing and sharing functionality
Espoo, Finland and Hong Kong – Nokia today announced the launch of three feature-packed, mass market smartphones, bringing the latest smartphone functionality at attractive price points and including market-leading innovation with Symbian Belle. The Nokia 700, Nokia 701 and Nokia 600 extend the range of available designs, features and functionality in the Nokia Symbian smartphone range. Symbian Belle powers all three, with single-tap NFC technology sharing and pairing, the most personal user interface so far and a more powerful mobile Web browsing experience. As well as allowing content to be shared between devices, NFC capabilities allow any of the three new smartphones to pair with NFC-enabled mobile accessories such as speakers or Bluetooth headphones and headsets. To extend the range of available NFC-enabled accessories, Nokia is also announcing the launch of the Nokia Essence Bluetooth Stereo Headset, which can be paired with any NFC-enabled smartphone simply by tapping the two devices together.
While all three smartphones contain recognizable Nokia features, they each represent a very distinct set of priorities to allow users to choose what matters most in a smartphone. The most compact touch screen monoblock smartphone in the world (Nokia 700); a sleek and stylish smartphone with the world’s brightest mobile display for indoor or outdoor use (Nokia 701), and Nokia’s loudest entertainment smartphone (Nokia 600) all bring firsts to the Nokia product portfolio.”After bringing exciting new features to the Symbian user experience only two months ago with Symbian Anna, we are now driving the platform even further with our most competitive Symbian user experience ever,” said Ilari Nurmi, Vice President at Nokia. “Symbian Belle and the three new handsets we are launching today show our commitment to continue delivering Symbian products that allow people to choose what is most important to them in terms of user experience, design, functionality and price. These will not be last products or updates we will deliver on Symbian.”
“With the announcement today Nokia has made it clear that Symbian will continue to play an important role in its product portfolio along side Windows Phone 7” said Nick McQuire IDC. “There is a sense of urgency in the way improvements and innovation are being delivered to the platform that demonstrates how committed Nokia is to make Symbian products a competitive smartphone choice.”
Nokia 700: Nokia’s smallest smartphone
At only 50 cubic centimetres, weighing 96gm and at 110 x 50.7 x 9.7 mm, the Nokia 700 not only becomes Nokia’s most compact smartphone in the Symbian range, it is the most compact touch monoblock smartphone in the world. What it lacks in size it makes up for in functionality, with single-tap NFC sharing and pairing capabilities, a 1Ghz processor, 3.2 inch AMOLED screen ClearBlack display, 2GB of internal memory (with the option of using a 32GB microSD card for a total of 34GB), HD video capture and 5MP full focus camera with LED flash. The Nokia 700 is also Nokia’s most eco-friendly smartphone. With a long battery life, extensive use of eco-friendly materials and features to minimize battery consumption, it is the perfect smartphone for any environmentally-conscious smartphone user.Nokia 701: Nokia’s brightest smartphone
The Nokia 701is a sleek, slim smartphone incorporating the world’s brightest ever mobile phone display, based on a 3.5 inch ClearBlack display that makes it perfect for indoor and outdoor use. It also has active noise cancellation for the clearest sound quality and, like the other new smartphones, provides single-tap NFC pairing and sharing capabilities, allowing content to be shared and sound to be streamed wirelessly to headphones and NFC-enabled speakers.Based on the popular Nokia C7 design, the Nokia 701 smartphone also has a 1GHz processor, 8MP full focus camera with dual LED flash and 2 X digital zoom, 2nd front-facing camera and HD video capture. It comes with 8GB internal memory and the possibility to increase to 40GB by installing a 32GB microSD card.
Nokia 600: Nokia’s loudest smartphone
The Nokia 600 smartphone delivers a big sound and a big personality in a small package and is Nokia’s loudest at 106 Phons. With built-in FM radio antenna for listening to radio without headphones and FM transmitter that makes it possible to broadcast music from your phone to any FM radio, the Nokia 600 is a music-lover’s dream. With 60 hours of music playback time, an incredibly powerful internal loudspeaker and the ability to also stream music wirelessly to NFC-enabled accessories, it is the perfect smartphone to get the party started.
Available at a lower price point than the Nokia 700 and Nokia 701, the Nokia 600 still comes with a 1 GHz processor; 5MP full focus camera with LED flash and HD video capture, and 2GB of internal memory with ability to increase to 34GB using a 32GB microSD card.
Symbian Belle
Symbian Belle is the latest in a series of planned software updates to the Symbian platform, which started with Symbian Anna and will continue into 2012. Symbian Belle increases the number of home screens from three to six providing more room to display applications and services. Live widgets, now come in five different sizes, making the home screens come alive and giving users more flexibility to personalize the user experience. It also includes a pull down menu and taskbar to access notifications from any of the home screens and further enhancements to the Web browsing experience. All in all, Symbian Belle provides Nokia’s most competitive, seamless and intuitive Symbian experience so far.
One of Symbian Belle’s most exciting features is the single-tap NFC sharing and pairing capability. This allows contacts, videos and images to be shared with other NFC-enabled devices and smartphones, as well as pairing with NFC-enabled mobile accessories such as speakers and headsets. Gaming fans also benefit from the NFC capabilities of the new handsets with the ability to unlock additional levels in Angry Birds or find a hidden blade in Fruit Ninja just by touching two NFC-enabled devices together. On the Nokia 701 smartphone, which comes preloaded with Asphalt 5, two friends can even pair to compete on the same racetrack.
Nokia Essence Bluetooth Stereo Headset
The new Nokia Essence Bluetooth Stereo Headset uses special active noise cancellation technology to eliminate an unprecedented 99.8% of background noise – delivering pure, high-fidelity sound no matter how noisy the surroundings for people who don’t want to sacrifice audio quality when going wireless. Using NFC technology, the Bluetooth headset can be paired with any NFC-enabled smartphone simply by tapping the two devices together.
Symbian Anna now available for download [Nokia press release, Aug 18, 2011]
Symbian Anna – the latest software update for Symbian smartphones – is available for download starting today*.
Symbian Anna significantly enhances the user experience on the Nokia N8, Nokia C7, Nokia C6-01 and Nokia E7. A new user interface, virtual QWERTY keypad in portrait mode, split-screen messaging, enhanced Nokia Maps, better web browsing and stronger security are just a few of the improvements that people will be able to enjoy. Symbian Anna can be downloaded using the latest version of Ovi Suite (version 3.1.1) on a PC, or over-the-air directly to your smartphone**.
“Nokia’s Symbian smartphones are used by millions of people around the world every day, addressing specific consumer needs and providing choices at many price points,” said Ilari Nurmi, Vice President at Nokia. “Symbian Anna represents a significant update to the experience those users have and demonstrates our ongoing commitment to Symbian, which will see up to 10 more phones introduced over the next 12 months, further updates to the user experience and support for the software until at least 2016.”
Key features with Symbian Anna:
– User interface: Symbian Anna brings a fresh new look and feel to the Nokia N8, Nokia C7, Nokia C6-01 and Nokia E7 with crisp icons and multiple usability enhancements. Typing on the touchscreen is much easier with a split screen, so you can see message threads, webpages, contacts or email view while typing on the virtual QWERTY keypad – now also available in portrait mode.
– Maps and navigation: Symbian Anna enhances Nokia Maps with better search functionality, new public transportation routes and the ability to check-in to favorite geo-social network sites like Facebook, Foursquare and Twitter
– Browsing: A faster, easier-to-use browser, delivering quicker page loads and improved device navigation allowing people to connect more easily to their favorite sites on the go.
– Better for business: Symbian Anna brings true business-grade security with improved data encryption on Nokia smartphones. Business users with a Nokia N8, Nokia C7, Nokia C6-01 or Nokia E7 can now easily and securely access their company intranet with IPSEC and SSL VPN enablers.
– Near Field Communications (NFC): The Symbian Anna software update also activates the NFC hardware in the Nokia C7, so people can now simply tap their Nokia C7s together to share contacts, photos, videos and play games; easily pair with NFC-enabled accessories from Nokia and others; and read NFC tags to check-in and more
*The precise rollout schedule of the Symbian Anna software update varies from market to market.
**Method of delivery of the software update differs from market to market and operator to operator.
Notes to editors:
Symbian Anna key features:
– Virtual portrait QWERTY for fast, one handed typing
– Split screen view while typing; so you can see message threads, webpages, contacts or email
– An easier to use and faster browser, delivering quicker page loads and improved navigation
– Refreshed Nokia Maps including simpler search, new public transportation routes and the ability to check-in to Facebook, Twitter, Foursquare or local social networks
– A feature to share your location via email and SMS (even to non-Nokia phones)Features for business users:
– Instant messaging and presence with Microsoft Communicator Mobile
– E-mail enhancements including full meeting request support
– True business grade security with hardware accelerated encryption
– Easy and secure intranet access for business users who want to access their company intranetFeatures for developers:
– Flashlite 4
– Java Runtime 2.2
– Qt Mobility 1.1
– Qt4.7Visit www.nokia.com/symbiananna for more information.
Launch: the Nokia 500 – fast, light and multicoloured [Nokia Conversations [Official Blog], Aug 1, 2011]
Today sees the launch of a new smartphone, the Nokia 500. Boasting a 1GHz processor, changeable back covers plus the Symbian Anna operating system, this is a nifty, personalisable performer that comes in at a price that won’t break the bank. Read on for all the details.
If you’re looking for a low-cost, full-function smartphone, then the Nokia 500 should meet your needs and more. As you can see from the pictures, this is a touch-screen phone. It’s got a 3.2-inch capacitive touch display, with a screen resolution of 640 x 360 pixels. On the back, there’s a 5-megapixel camera that can also capture video – ideal for holiday snaps and days out.
The Nokia 500 comes with the latest Symbian Anna OS, offering a refreshed UI, a better browser and split-screen messaging. As you’d expect, preinstalled you’ll find the latest version of Nokia Maps for free drive and walk navigation, plus you can download every other app you might need from the Store. If you’re anything like us, then your first week with the phone will be occupied filling and then emptying the phone of dozens of apps. The music player is complemented by an FM radio receiver and Internet Radio access to all the music and news you might need, not just from your own country, but from around the world. Social Media is catered for through the Social app, bringing friends’ updates to your homescreen.
Under the hood, there’s the 1GHz processor – allowing for plenty of oomph when you’re multitasking lots of apps or doing something extra-demanding. There’s 2GB of storage memory, plus the possibility of increasing this by a further 32GB using the micro-SD card slot. Like all our recent smartphones, it offers pentaband radio coverage so world travellers need never be out of touch, 3G data up to HSUPA speeds [that’s a whopping maximum speed of 5.8Mbps nowadays, by the way]. There’s also Bluetooth 2.1 and Wi-Fi b/g, as you’d expect. The phone measures 111.3 x 53.8 x 14.1mm and weighs in at 93g – lighter than any other Symbian^3 phone to date.
It’s also worth mentioning the battery, which despite the faster processor, still manages to pull off a very respectable performance. For us, that’s an absolute priority. The battery will see you through 5-7 hours talk time, 450+ hours in standby mode or up to 35 hours of music playback, if that’s your thing.
And here it is in video form:
The Nokia 500 will be available in black and white varieties, black first and then white before the end of the year. And there’s three different-coloured back covers in the box. More colours for these will become available soon – including purple, azure blue, pink, coral red, orange and dark silver. Having seen the hot pink versions of the Nokia N8 and N9, we’re convinced that colour will win a lot of fans.
Excluding any local taxes or operator subsidies, the Nokia 500 will cost just €150 before taxes and subsidies, and will be available from the third quarter of this year.
More details are available at http://www.nokia.com/500. What else would you like to know about the Nokia 500?
Pixel Qi’s second investment round concluded by the 3M investment
Preceding information (essential reads):
– Pixel Qi’s first big name device manufacturing partner is the extremely ambitious ZTE [Feb 15, 2011, latest update: June 3, 2011]
– Pixel Qi and CPT alliance for sunlight readability [Dec 22, 2010, latest update: June 2, 2011]
– Marvell ARMADA with sun readable and unbreakable Pixel Qi screen, and target [mass] manufacturing cost of $75 [Nov 4, 2010, latest update: July 20, 2011]
3M Invests in Pixel Qi Corp. [Sept 12, 2011]
3M, through its 3M New Ventures organization, has invested in Pixel Qi Corp., a developer of next generation LCD panels with operations in Taiwan and California. Terms of the transaction were not disclosed.
Founded by LCD pioneer, Dr. Mary Lou Jepsen in 2008, Pixel Qi designs unique, innovative LCD screens that solve problems not addressed by conventional screens. Its first products are sunlight-readable, low-power LCD panels aimed for mobile device applications.
As consumers increasingly rely on connected, mobile devices in their daily lives, there is a growing, unmet requirement for display devices that offer portability, connectivity, long battery life and excellent indoor/outdoor readability in one device. Current displays are not able to solve all of these challenges simultaneously. Pixel Qi’s unique technology platform eliminates the need for trade-offs and enables high quality, outdoor or sunlight viewing with excellent battery life and portability in one device. The combination of its technologies with those of 3M will create excellent new opportunities for both companies.
“Pixel Qi’s full-function color screen technology, for the first time, gives consumers an outdoor-readable video display with exceptional battery life, usable anywhere, anytime. It’s a first in the industry. In our collaboration with 3M, we have the ability to accelerate this into mass adoption,” said Mary Lou Jepsen, co-founder and CEO of Pixel Qi.
The funding led by 3M New Ventures will play a key role in enabling Pixel Qi to develop its product offerings into volume consumer markets as well as digital signage and touch applications. The investment, which successfully concludes Pixel Qi’s second (series “B”) investment round, will also allow Pixel Qi to build and to strengthen its engineering and sales capabilities.
Stefan Gabriel, president of 3M New Ventures said, “Pixel Qi’s technology enables displays of such lower power and high usability that the vision of ubiquitous displays comes much closer to realization. In combining Pixel Qi’s disruptive display technology with our technology platforms, we can create new business opportunities in the consumer and commercial markets for 3M.”
3M’s Optical Systems Division is a world leader in the specialized films used inside liquid crystal displays to optimize the light throughput. Pixel Qi’s innovative LCD designs use such film technologies, and other advances, to create novel displays and enable the best outdoor readable, power efficient displays available on the market. “By addressing the energy consumption and sunlight readability challenges in one package, Pixel Qi provides a ground-breaking solution for the next generation of displays,” said Jim Bauman, vice president, 3M Optical Systems Division. “The combination of Pixel Qi’s low energy, reflective display technology with 3M’s innovative technologies will create exciting products for the mobile, handheld, tablet and other display markets.”
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About 3M New Ventures
3M New Ventures is based in Munich, Germany. This business identifies highly innovative companies and future technologies. These opportunities include investments in the strategic sectors of display, energy, water, architecture, media, healthcare and safety and security, with linkages to 3M. Recent investments made by 3M New Ventures include minority stakes in Perceptive Pixel Inc., a developer of advanced multi-touch solutions; Printechnologics GmbH, a printed electronics specialist providing innovative solutions for electronic circuitry on paper or foil; and txtr GmbH, an innovative eReading technology company. 3M recently received the ‘Best Innovator’ award in Germany for its best-in-class innovation management and corporate venturing.
About Pixel Qi Corporation
Pixel Qi Corporation, is based in San Bruno, California and with principal offices in Taipei, Taiwan, and aims to design innovative LCD screens which solve problems not addressed by conventional screens. Its first products are sunlight-readable, low-power LCD panels aimed for mobile device applications. Operating as the industry’s first fabless display house, Pixel Qi designs all layers of the LCD, including each and every mask, the liquid crystal mode and material, the optical films, the driving scheme and the backlight. Pixel Qi, is a spinoff of One Laptop Per Child, the creator of the $100 laptop, where Pixel Qi CEO and founder Mary Lou Jepsen was chief architect and chief technology officer.
The “qi” (pronounced ‘chee’) in the firm’s name, refers to the circulating life energy that in Asian philosophy is thought to be inherent in all things.
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SOURCE: 3M
3M US: 3M Optical Systems [site]
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Future Technology Today
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Portfolio of Key 3M Optical Display Films
- NEW! Collimating Multilayer Optical Film (CMOF): the latest optical film innovation, offering a nearly perfect balance and mixture of light, for the ultimate viewing experience. Enables LCD integrated optics.
- Enhanced Specular Reflector Film (ESR): The most reflective surface available today, for brighter, and more energy-efficient displays.
- Dual Brightness Enhancement Films (DBEF): Reflecting polarizers that enhance brightness and widen the viewing angle while maintaining color and picture uniformity.
- Brightness Enhancement Films (BEF): Optical film that collimates light to control viewing angle and increase brightness.
3M Business Units: Optical Systems Division
The Optical Systems Division has global responsibility for the following businesses:
Electronic Display Lighting, Computer Filters, 3M Touch Systems and 3M Precision Optics. OSD provides display enhancement products for all market segments of the electronic display lighting industry that includes computer and television displays, handheld displays, computer filter and specialty displays, touch screens, rear projection screens and lens systems for projection displays.
Electronic Display Lighting
The Electronic Display Lighting business offers multiple Vikuiti™ Display Enhancement solutions for the electronic display industry including transmissive displays, reflective and absorbing polarizers for LCDs and kiosk applications, high contrast projection screens and anti-reflective solutions. Vikuiti™ Display Enhancement Films improve the visual appearance of electronic displays and offer a variety of solutions for improved readability, increased brightness, excellent contrast and color uniformity, glare reduction, privacy, and portability. Maximizing readability, the Vikuiti™ brand signifies superior performance for notebook PCs, liquid crystal display (LCD) monitors and TVs, automotive displays, rear-projection TVs, cell phones, PDAs and other handheld devices.
Major Markets: Electronic display (aftermarket and OEM).
Distribution: Vikuiti™ Display Enhancement Films are sold directly to the LCD and backlight manufacturers or display integrators.
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Computer Filters
The Computer Filters business unit concentrates on aftermarket products addressing Cathode Ray Tube (CRT) and Liquid Crystal Display (LCD) needs for light control, privacy viewing, glare reduction and reduction of ELF/VLF E-field radiation. Typical applications include desktop and notebook computer monitors.
Major Markets: Consumer; electronic (OEM and retail); office; transportation (aftermarket and OEM).
Distribution: Computer filters are sold by direct sales through data and office supply distribution.
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3M Touch Systems
Created in 2001 through the acquisition of two established touch screen manufacturers, MicroTouch Systems and Dynapro, 3M Touch Systems is a worldwide business group of the Optical Systems Division of 3M. Innovative touch technology complements the Vikuiti™ line of polarizer and brightness enhancement optical films and filters that are offered by the Optical Systems Division. 3M Touch Systems develops and manufactures innovative touch screens, touch monitors, and industrial touch products with a commitment to ease of integration, unparalleled responsiveness and simplicity of use.
Major Markets: Primary touch markets include gaming/entertainment, point-of-sale (POS), industrial, self-service kiosks, financial, portable and consumer products.
Distribution: Touch screens sold primarily through direct sales. Touch monitors sold through direct sales, manufacturing representatives and distributors. Other products are sold through direct sales and resellers.
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Internet Web Sites
3M Demonstrates Innovative Display Film Solutions During SID Display Week 2011 [May 17, 2011]
Taking energy efficiency in electronic devices a step further, the 3M Optical Systems Division today provided a sneak preview of its energy efficiency exhibit highlights that will be featured during SID Display Week 2011, to be held May 16-20 in Los Angeles, Calif. Demonstrating how the company’s films make today’s electronic devices more efficient, without sacrificing display performance, 3M will showcase its latest energy efficiency films for tablets, handheld devices, notebooks, monitors and LCD TVs. In addition, the company will debut several new demonstrations including its proprietary integrated optics technology, uniformity tape and 3D handheld displays using collimated films, with and without glasses. The company’s energy efficient solutions can improve energy efficiency in electronic devices by up to 30 percent.
“The display and electronics supply chain is continuously reinventing electronic devices,” noted Jim Bauman, vice president of 3M’s Optical Systems Division. “Our optical films, and unique technology solutions enable display and device manufacturers to create thin, bright and energy efficient electronic devices, with endless possibilities. The demonstrations at our booth provide a sneak preview as to what the future holds for display-centric electronics, made possible by 3M’s technology innovation.”
During Display Week, 3M will show the following:
Uniformity Tape Allows LCD Manufacturers to Reduce Number of LEDs Required for Edge-lit LED LCD Panels at a Low Cost without Sacrificing Brightness or Efficiency
3M’s Uniformity Tape is a clear tape, which has adhesive on one side and a micro-replicated optical pattern on the other side. It is adhered to the edge of the light guide, which faces the LED light sources. The tape is designed to increase the spreading of light in the light guide from each LED, which greatly increases the allowable LED spacing. The optical pattern is spatially uniform, meaning that no positional registration of LEDs is required along its length. The Uniformity Tape keeps the edge of the display closest to the LEDs uniform in brightness when the spacing of light sources is increased. This allows panel manufacturers to save money by removing unnecessary LEDs. Uniformity Tape can also increase LED spacing by up to three times the current spacing, while maintaining edge uniformity for a given bezel size.3M’s Collimating Multi-layer Optical Film, Air Guide and Unique ‘Light Mixing’ Approach Enables Non-incremental Improvements in Cost and Simplifies LCD/System Supply Chains
3M’s new class of integrated optical films, known as ‘Collimating Multi-layer Optical Film’ (CMOF), can eliminate all free-floating films, as well as the light guide from LED LCD backlights. The continued use of the traditional, multi-film backlight architecture has resulted in constraints that limit innovation in cost, performance, form factor, weight and the supply chain. 3M’s ‘integrated optics’ approach leveraging CMOF and Air Guide technologies addresses these challenges head on—significantly improving the overall environmental profile of these systems and presenting a rare opportunity for collaboration across the supply chain.Glasses Free 3D Films Deliver True Auto-stereoscopic 3D without Impacting Display Color or Resolution
3M’s latest advances in 3D Enhancement Films include a handheld auto-stereoscopic device demonstration with full resolution 3D and full resolution 2D viewing off-axis and no view reversal. In addition, the company will show its new, 9-inch auto-stereoscopic tablet displays, also featuring full resolution 3D and 2D, with no view reversal, as well as a 400mm viewing distance by leveraging 3M’s advanced 3D Enhancement Film.3M Tablet Film Increases Battery Life, Reduces Device Thickness and Weight, Without Sacrificing Display Brightness or Quality
3M’s tablet demonstration will leverage four key optical films: APF-V3, an extremely thin, 26 micron, high brightness reflective polarizer; LBR-160, a high efficiency back reflector; as well as BEF4-GMv2 and BEF4-GT, thin, high brightness, Brightness Enhancement Films (BEF). By combining the films, tablet battery life can be extended without sacrificing display quality or brightness. This one of a kind film combination can also be used to increase display brightness by more than 50 percent, enhancing the outdoor viewing experience, in addition to reducing the overall thickness of backlight films by 30 percent*.Front Light Display Technology for e-Paper Displays Gives Uniform, Energy Efficient Lighting
3M’s new front light display technology provides highly uniform and energy efficient lighting for e-paper displays, while maintaining image quality and thin form factor. The technology creates a display that has all the advantages of e-paper displays in bright and normal lighting and still can be used conveniently and comfortably in dark environments.Leveraging 3M’s Light Enhancing Films To Enable Energy Savings Without Compromises
This series of demonstrations depicts the innovation that 3M has and is continuing to deliver to the LCD backlight industry. From the current industry standard utilizing 3M’s Dual Brightness Enhancement Film (DBEF) to the future where all that is needed is a back reflector and a new 3M multi-function reflective polarizer that is integrated with the panel, 3M has and will continue to deliver energy saving solutions without any compromises.Wider Viewing Angles without Sacrificing Brightness
This unique exhibit highlights high-brightness, wide viewing angles and unparalleled picture quality from all directions that are made possible by the benefits of the company’s DBEF solution.Extended Battery Life (EBL) for Mobile Devices
3M will demonstrate backlight solutions that improve the efficiency of mobile displays and devices—enabling higher brightness and/or longer battery life in high use-modes. Paired comparisons of cell phones running 3M’s Display Monitor Application will demonstrate the improvements in estimated display-on, gaming, movie and Wi-Fi browsing battery life by optimizing the display using 3M’s backlight solutions.Advanced Structure Optical Composite (ASOC) Makes Thinner Mobile Displays Possible
3M will show prototypes of its 97 micron Advanced Structure Optical Composite (ASOC) film, which will is 3M’s thinnest backlight stack film solution for mobile displays while meeting current crossed prismatic film brightness performance and robustness.
3M Demonstrates Optical Films for Tablet Applications at SID Display Week
2011 [May 16, 2011]
Company’s Tablet Film Increases Battery Life, Reduces Device Thickness and Weight, Without Sacrificing Display Brightness or Quality
3M’s Optical Systems Division today announced that it will debut its new optical film solutions for tablet applications during SID Display Week 2011, taking place in Los Angeles, Calif. May 16-20, 2011.
Specifically, the company’s Display Week tablet demonstration will leverage four key optical films: APF-V3, an extremely thin, 26 micron, high brightness reflective polarizer; LBR-160, a high efficiency back reflector; as well as BEF4-GMv2 and BEF4-GT, thin, high brightness, Brightness Enhancement Films (BEF). By combining the films, tablet battery life can be extended without sacrificing display quality or brightness. This one of a kind film combination can also be used to increase display brightness by more than 50%, enhancing the outdoor viewing experience, in addition to reducing the overall thickness of backlight films by 30%*.
According to DisplaySearch, the global Tablet PC market is forecast to grow 154% Y/Y to 52.4 million units in 2011 and to reach 140 million units by 2013—providing significant growth opportunities for the flat panel display and tablet PC supply chain.
“With this accelerating segment poised for strong growth, 3M continues to develop unique solutions that meet the technical demands and drive the creation of future innovative designs for tablets,” noted Jim Bauman, vice president of 3M’s Optical Systems Division. “The key challenges in the current supply chain are to extend battery life and enable more thinner and lightweight devices. 3M’s advanced optical films meet these requirements and deliver superior performance to meet our customers’ needs.”
3M Ushers in a New Era of Light Management with a New Class of Integrated
Optical Films [May 12, 2011]
Company’s Tablet Film Increases Battery Life, Reduces Device Thickness and Weight, Without Sacrificing Display Brightness or Quality
Advancing light management for LCD backlights, 3M’s Optical Systems Division today unveiled a unique solution to address long-standing constraints in LCD backlights. Specifically, the company’s new class of integrated optical films, known as ‘Collimating Multi-layer Optical Film’ (CMOF), can eliminate all free-floating films, as well as the light guide from LED LCD backlights.
“Technology advancements in LEDs have led to exciting developments, such as edge-lit LED LCD TVs,” noted John Wheatley, Division Scientist for 3M’s Optical Systems Division. “Despite this, the continued use of the traditional, multi-film backlight architecture has resulted in constraints that limit innovation in cost, performance, form factor, weight and the supply chain. Our ‘integrated optics’ approach leveraging CMOF and Air Guide technologies addresses these challenges head on—significantly improving the overall environmental profile of these systems and presenting a rare opportunity for collaboration across the supply chain.”
Collimating Multi-layer Optical Film “CMOF” Solution Enables Unique “Light Mixing” Approach
CMOF is based on 3M’s multi-layer optical film technology platform that is used to make current display films such as DBEF reflective polarizers and ESR reflector films. By leveraging CMOF, 3M has demonstrated how to reduce the amount of light management material in an LED LCD backlight by an order of magnitude—significantly improving the overall environmental profile, while enabling non-incremental improvements in cost, as well as the simplicity of products, display systems and supply chain. The company’s ‘integrated optics’ solution also enables a unique, new light management approach, consisting of ‘light mixing’ to addresses fundamental problems to LED displays. As a result of this technology, 3M has developed a new backlight architecture called Air Guide.
Integrated Optics On-Panel: Air Guide
3M’s ability to integrate the light management directly on the panel in the manufacturing process enables a one-step assembly process—making the supply chain even more efficient. Device manufacturers who use LCD panels with 3M optics integrated, can simply place it on the appropriate chassis, made with an integrated ESR reflector. In addition, by leveraging Air Guide, LCD manufacturers will have display systems that are more tolerant to LED binning variations of brightness and color associated with LED manufacturing. This is important since costs associated with binning can account for up to 30% of overall LED manufacturing costs. Monitor, TV, and LCD signage are all potential markets for Air Guide.
“The continuous improvement in LED output and efficiency has created a situation where many displays are now at or will soon approach their uniformity limit. This means that even if LEDs continue to improve, a system cannot use fewer lamps, since it would result in non-uniformity due to the widely spaced points of light,” Wheatley added. “Light mixing changes this, enabling systems with very few, widely spaced LEDs. In fact, a monitor illuminated with a single LED, or a TV with 5 LEDs is not out of the question in the near term.”
Carbon footprint is of increasing importance in assessing environmental impact of products. Carbon footprint includes not only energy efficiency of device power draw, but also the impact of the entire supply chain in making, shipping and packaging required for a device’s manufacture. 3M works with its customers to find ways to continually improve in this area, and integrated optics for LCD is an important part of that effort.
Open Cell Business Model
Lastly, the industry is increasingly moving toward adopting an open cell business model where panel makers will make openly available LCD panels for purchase. 3M’s ability to integrate the light management directly on the panel in its manufacture is well suited to this, and results in an even more efficient supply chain. Device manufacturers would just need to purchase a panel (with 3M optics integrated), and place it on the appropriate chassis.
60.1: LCD Integrated Optics [SID Symposium Digest of Technical Papers — June 2011 — Volume 42, Issue 1, pp. 878-881]
John Wheatley, Tao Liu, Matthew E. Sousa, Stephen Etzkorn, Ellen Bösl, John Van Derlofske, and Quinn Sanford
Optical Systems Division, 3M Company, St. Paul, MN, 55144-1000, USAC. David Hoyle and Gilles Benoit
Display and Graphics Film Laboratory, 3M Company, St. Paul, MN, 55144-1000, USAA new class of optical film is demonstrated which addresses fundamental and longstanding constraints in LCD backlights. These films enable displays with highly integrated optics and no free-floating films. Both unitary polarized solid light guides and edge-lit hollow systems without guides are shown. The non-incremental impact on multiple LCD value propositions including waste stream is discussed. Film development has been done on manufacturing scale.
LCD Integrated Optics Presentation in PDF [May 25, 2011]
3M’s Uniformity Tape Allows LCD Manufacturers to Reduce Number of LEDs
without Sacrificing Display Image Brightness or Quality [May 11, 2011]
Unique Uniformity Tape Enables 3X More LED Spacing, reducing LCD Panel Manufacturing Costs
In an effort to meet LCD manufacturer design flexibility demands, the 3M Optical Systems Division today announced that it has developed a unique solution called Uniformity Tape that will allow LCD manufacturers to reduce the number of LEDs required for edge-lit LED LCD panels at a low cost, without sacrificing brightness or efficiency.
LEDs are becoming brighter and even more efficient—requiring fewer bulbs to achieve target brightness for a given display. Until now, there have been limitations as to how far LEDs can be spaced apart at the edge of an LCD panel because of dark areas that appear between LEDs when they are too far apart. This scenario is commonly referred to as ‘head-lighting’ because it looks like the dark space on the road between the headlights of a car.
3M’s Uniformity Tape is a clear tape, which has adhesive on one side and a micro-replicated optical pattern on the other side. It is adhered to the edge of the light guide, which faces the LED light sources. The tape is designed to increase the spreading of light in the light guide from each LED, which greatly increases the allowable LED spacing. The optical pattern is spatially uniform, meaning that no positional registration of LEDs is required along its length. The Uniformity Tape keeps the edge of the display closest to the LEDs uniform in brightness when the spacing of light sources is increased. This allows panel manufacturers to save money by removing unnecessary LEDs. Uniformity Tape can also increase LED spacing by up to three times the current spacing, while maintaining edge uniformity for a given bezel size.
“As LED technology continues to improve and becomes even brighter, some backlight designs are currently using more LEDs than needed for a brightness specification in order to avoid head lighting or thick bezels. Uniformity constraints have also prevented manufacturers from removing LEDs to save on cost,” noted Gilles Georges, 3M global marketing manager. “By spacing LEDs further apart for edge-lit LED LCD panels, 3M’s Uniformity Tape allows light to travel inside the light guide at wider angles—allowing manufacturers to design wider spacing between LEDs without any dark areas.”
When combined with 3M’s Dual Brightness Enhancement Film (DBEF), Uniformity Tape allows display manufacturers even more design freedom to innovate and use less LEDs to create a backlight that not only meets energy standards, but also remains competitive at a low cost. Furthermore, Uniformity Tape helps device manufacturers meet the growing number of energy efficiency standards around the world.
Barnes & Noble NOOK offensive
Follow-up: Core post: NOOK Media LLC: the finalization of the strategic joint venture between Barnes & Noble and Microsoft [Oct 6, 2012]
Ammunition Teams with Barnes & Noble on All-New NOOK [May 24, 2011] (emphasis is mine)
Ammunition’s long-standing partnership with Barnes & Noble reached a milestone today with the announcement of the All-New NOOK, the ground up redesign of the company’s successful NOOK digital reader. Working alongside the world’s largest book retailer, Ammunition developed product concept, industrial design, and packaging for the All-New NOOK, the third e-reader and electronic publishing device to join the NOOK product line.The challenge for the All-New NOOK was to create a lower cost, full featured e-reader and to do so on a timeline that would allow it to move to market quickly. The result is a $139 device that uses eInk technology, a touch interface, and wireless connectivityto create a more immersive and personal reading experience for users. With its simple, soft, rubberized form and refined details, the All-New NOOK is by far the smallest and lightest dedicated e-reading tablet to come to market to date.Pre-orders are available at Barnes & Noble retail and online stores with a ship date on or about June 10, 2011.
NOOK work [by Ammunition]
… In addition, our team provided the retail packaging accessory strategy for NOOK Color.
The NOOK website
Highly recommended event report: Barnes & Noble Nook announcement of new ereader [TeleRead, May 24, 2011] (only a few excerpts are here, emphasis is mine)
Nook Color is the best selling Android tablet in the US and second only to the Ipad in overall tablet sales.
…
Compared to Kindle 3: no buttons and optimized interface makes it faster and easier to use; same size display as Kindle with 10% less size and bulk; countoured form factor so it is shaped to the hand, uses soft-touch paint; twice the battery life of the Kindle; Kindle uses reflash to change pages and until now this was the only option to address the ghosting effect, the new Nook is 85% faster.
…
Touch screen uses infra-red technology. Design goal was that technology should disappear to make reading as much like a book as possible. Will display how many pages left in a chapter. 6 different fonts with 7 different sizes. The shop screen will give readers recommendations based on what you are currently reading. WiFi but no 3G. Will connect automatically to AT&T hotspots.
…
Questions: WiFi is the dominant share in readers so went with that also helped keep the cost down. 800 MHz TI Omap chip [the same as in the Nook Color]. In hearing from customers battery life was always 1 or 2 in requirements. Two months is based on 1/2 hour reading per day with WiFi off. Nook apps only available on the Nook Color – this is a pure and simple device. Uses Android 2.1. Expandable up to 32Gb. Old Nook device will be discontinued. Don’t expect it to cannibalize Nook Color sales because is aimed at a different market segment. Research suggests that some people will buy both products for different members of family. In next 3 to 5 years physical books will continue to dominate the market. Store sales are not declining. For touch screen worked with Neo Node. Digital revenue is fastest growing part of B&N revenue, by far. No ads on Nooks. Surprised at how well Apps have done. Store managers by slightly less than 1/3 of their books regionally.
Barnes & Noble Partners with Leading Content Providers and Developers to Launch NOOK Apps™ for NOOK Color™, Best Reader’s Tablet™ [April 25, 2011] (emphasis is mine)
– NOOK Developer™ Program Brings Popular, High-Quality Applications For Customers to Play, Learn, Connect and More on Award-Winning Device
– Major NOOK Color Software Update Expands Best-In-Class Reading Experience with Most Requested Tablet Features Including Shopping For Apps in NOOK Bookstore™
…
NOOK Apps were introduced with the major NOOK Color software update launched today (available at no cost at www.nookcolor.com/update). The update delivers what customers want: shopping for popular apps, full-featured built-in email, an enhanced Web experience, as well as new ways for adults and children to enjoy rich content. NOOK Color v1.2 includes a platform upgrade to Android OS 2.2/Froyo, along with support for AdobeŽ AIRŽ and Adobe FlashŽ Player.
… Built on the Android OS, it is fast and easy for third-party developers to deploy existing Android-based apps to NOOK Color’s open eReading platform. With the v1.2 update, Adobe AIR is available pre-installed on the NOOK Color eReading platform, allowing developers to create and deliver rich and interactive applications for NOOK Color using tools in Adobe Creative SuiteŽ 5.5 including Flash Builder™ 4.5, and Flash Professional CS 5.5. Developers can learn more about the tools and resources available to create AIR and native Android applications for NOOK Color on the NOOK Developer portal.Barnes & Noble will continue to work with the development community – including the program’s more than 5,000 registered parties – to bring NOOK Color customers the highest quality apps, through a simple, organized method of discovery through the Shop experience. The number of NOOK Apps will continually expand as new applications are added to the growing collection. The NOOK Developer program continues to experience strong momentum with hundreds of developer requests to qualify for application submission in the three weeks since Barnes & Noble opened its submission process for qualified registrants and introduced a new suite of tools and services to accelerate application delivery and distribution.
Developers are invited to join and qualify to submit their applications by visiting www.nookdeveloper.com. Unlike other developer programs, there is no program fee for developers to participate in NOOK Developer. Developers who qualify will be able to submit paid and free apps and will receive 70 percent of any paid app purchased by Barnes & Noble customers. Developers also have the option to offer free trials to NOOK Color users.
Barnes & Noble Quickly Hits 1 Million NOOK Apps™ Downloads by NOOK Color™ Customers [May 16, 2011]
– Milestone Reached Just One Week After NOOK App Shopping Made Available to All NOOK Color Customers
– Angry Birds, Drawing Pad, Fliq Calendar and Pulse Among Most Popular Apps
Barnes & Noble Introduces The All-New NOOK™, The Simple Touch Reader™ [May 24, 2011]
– Best Battery Life Ever – Up to an Incredible Two Months on a Single Charge
– Ultra-Light and Compact for Optimal Portability, Lighter than a Paperback
– Full Touchscreen with E Ink(R) Pearl Display Technology for Reading Anywhere
– Optimized Display Performance Offers 80 Percent Less Flashing than Any Other eReader for the Most Immersive Reading Experience
– The Most Intuitive, Easy-to-Use eReader for Everyone
Barnes & Noble Expert Recommendations, Plus the Most Social Reading Experience with NOOK Friends™
– Pre-Order for $139 in Time for Father’s Day and Summer ReadingBarnes & Noble, Inc. (NYSE: BKS), the world’s largest bookseller, today expanded its bestselling digital reading offering with the All-New NOOK, The Simple Touch Reader. With a full touchscreen, NOOK™ features record-setting, extra-long battery life on the easiest-to-use, ultra-light, portable 6-inch eReader with the most-advanced E Ink Pearl display, and the world’s largest bookstore available by Wi-FiŽ. Now available for pre-order at www.nook.comand at Barnes & Noble stores for just $139, NOOK will begin shipping on or about June 10. Barnes & Noble adds the All-New NOOK, a significant leap forward in the dedicated eReader category, to a product line that includes the bestselling NOOK Color™, the only Reader’s Tablet™. Based on the success of the NOOK product line, combined with focus on the absolute best reading experience, Barnes & Noble now claims more than 25 percent of the digital book market – just 18 months after launching NOOK 1st Edition™.Barnes & Noble has always recognized the simplicity and ease that the element of touch brings to its NOOK product line, and the All-New NOOK is no exception. With a simple tap to the 6-inch touchscreen, it’s intuitive and easy to navigate, shop and read. Customers can look up words, highlight passages, adjust the font size and style or search by typing on the responsive on-screen keyboard that appears only when a customer needs it. The paper-like E Ink display features crisp, clear text that’s great for reading anywhere, even in bright sunlight. The no-glare display offers 50 percent more contrast than NOOK 1st Edition.
At only 7.48 ounces (212 grams), the artfully designed All-New NOOK is lightweight and thin – 35 percent lighter and 15 percent thinner than NOOK Wi-Fi 1st Edition™. Lighter than a paperback, NOOK’s sleek but durable, compact design (6.5 inches high by 5 inches wide by 0.47 inches deep) makes it easy to fit in a jacket, pocket, purse or backpack, holding up to 1,000 digital books and more personal content using the expandable memory slot. Its ergonomic, contoured design with a soft-touch back makes it easy and comfortable to read, even with just one hand, and for extended periods of time. And thanks to best-in-class battery life, read for up to 2 months on a single charge with Wi-Fi off – that’s twice as long as the other leading eReader available.
Barnes & Noble’s use of the latest-generation E Ink screen and proprietary technology offers unmatched performance on the All-New NOOK, delivering a seamless and immersive reading experience. NOOK offers 80 percent less flashing than other eReaders – whether turning pages, browsing for books or scrolling through your library. Page turns are lightning fast, using the touchscreen or well-placed side buttons, and with the new Fast Page™ feature, just press and hold a side button to quickly scan through content and skip right to the desired section.
“We set out to design the easiest-to-use, most optimized, dedicated reading device ever created and accomplished it with the All-New NOOK,” said William Lynch, Chief Executive Officer of Barnes & Noble. “Touch makes it simple to use, and the beautifully compact design makes it the most portable eReader in its class. Add to that an unmatched battery life, the most advanced paper-like touch display on the market and wireless access to the world’s largest digital bookstore, and we believe that for readers of all ages, the All-New NOOK is the best eReader on the market, and a great value at $139.”
The World’s Largest Bookstore in Your Pocket
With the All-New NOOK, customers can enjoy a wide variety of digital content, all at their fingertips. Shop for everything from new releases and current bestsellers to classics and more, all in a single search. The NOOK Bookstore™ offers one of the most expansive digital catalogs of more than two million books, magazines and newspapers. Enjoy helpful recommendations from Barnes & Noble’s experts, personalized based on customers’ favored authors and genres, to decide what to read next. Have more than 80 popular national and local market newspapers and magazines from the NOOK Newsstand™ automatically delivered to NOOK the moment they’re released, including The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times and USA TODAY, as well as Forbes, Reader’s Digest, Discover, Fast Company and New York magazine. All periodicals are available for subscription with a 14-day free trial or via single copies.Most NOOK Books™ are $9.99 or less, including most of The New York Times Bestsellers, plus there’s over a million free classics. Enjoy more than 100,000 titles from independent publishers and self-publishing authors using Barnes & Noble’s PubIt!™ digital publishing platform. Young readers will find more than 12,000 NOOK Kids™ chapter books in Barnes & Noble’s world’s largest collection of digital children’s content. Sample NOOK Book titles for free and download all content wirelessly over a Wi-Fi connection in just seconds.
When customers visit Barnes & Noble stores with their All-New NOOK, the shopping and reading experience gets even better. Connect to free and fast Wi-Fi and browse complete NOOK Books for free through the company’s innovative Read In Store™ program and get exclusive content and special promotions through the More In Store™ program. NOOK customers receive access at more than 24,000 AT&T Wi-Fi hotspots, as well as other personal and public hotspots to browse, buy and download new content wirelessly.
Get Social with NOOK Friends
Another way NOOK customers can learn more about great books is through NOOK Friends, an exciting social experience previously available only to NOOK Color customers. From the home page, customers can see book recommendations from friends. See what your friends have posted about their current read, swap recommendations, share reading status, favorite quotes, and much more. Through TwitterŽ and FacebookŽ integrations, right from their current book, customers can tweet the title they’re reading, post on their Facebook wall and see what their NOOK Friends “like” on Facebook. With Barnes & Noble’s exclusive LendMeŽ technology, you can also lend eligible books to your friends at no cost for 14 days, and see and request to borrow friends’ LendMe books.And coming in the next few weeks, Barnes & Noble will offer a new custom website, mynook.com, where customers can get recommendations from Barnes & Noble expert booksellers and NOOK Friends, access their NOOK Library™, and manage their device.
Read Your Way
Customers can customize their All-New NOOK and reading experience to their liking. Choose from 7 font sizes and 6 font styles. NOOK owners can personalize their device with one of Barnes & Noble’s screen savers or transfer personal photos (JPG, PNG, BMP and GIF) to make NOOK their own, and choose from a complete line of exclusive, new NOOK accessories (www.nook.com/accessories) to show their style wherever they go. They can also create personalized My Shelves to organize their NOOK Library and group reading content similar to their bookcase.Read Everywhere
A customer’s entire NOOK Library follows them wherever they go. They can also easily transfer personal EPUB and PDF files to their All-New NOOK device to read documents on the go using the 2GB internal memory or a microSD™ card. Since the All-New NOOK is built on Android™ Operating System 2.1 and uses Adobe technology, device owners can also borrow digital books from their local library, a feature Barnes & Noble has always offered to NOOK device customers. Customers can also read seamlessly, accessing their NOOK Library and sync the last page read across their NOOK devices and their favorite mobile and computing devices using Barnes & Noble’s free line of eReading software (www.bn.com/freenookapps).Availability
The All-New NOOK can be pre-ordered for $139 today and is expected to begin shipping on or about June 10, making it the perfect gift for dads and grads, and a great addition for every book lover’s summer reading wish list. Experience the All-New NOOK at www.nook.com or at the NOOK Boutiques™ and displays in one of Barnes & Noble’s more than 700 bookstores. With The Barnes & Noble Promise™, the company offers unmatched customer support in neighborhood Barnes & Noble bookstores, as more than 40,000 booksellers across the country are ready to assist customers with setting up their NOOKs or choosing their next great read. The company also continues to provide award-winning customer service support via phone and email. The All-New NOOK will also be available beginning next month at Best Buy, Walmart, Staples and Books-A-Million, along with NOOK Color.About NOOK™ from Barnes & Noble
Barnes & Noble’s NOOK brand of eReading products makes it easy to read what you love, anywhere you like™ with a fun, easy-to-use and immersive digital reading experience. With NOOK, customers gain access to Barnes & Noble’s expansive NOOK Bookstore™ of more than two million digital titles, and the ability to enjoy content across a wide array of popular devices. The award-winning NOOK Color™ Reader’s Tablet™, the best-value on the tablet market ($249), features a stunning 7-inch VividView™ Color Touchscreen to read all of the content you love, shop popular apps, connect via email, browse the Web and more. The All-New NOOK ($139), the Simple Touch Reader™, is the easiest-to-use 6-inch touch reader, with the longest battery life of any eReader. In Barnes & Noble stores, NOOK owners can access free Wi-Fi connectivity, enjoy the Read In Store™ feature to read NOOK Books™ for free, and the More In Store™ program, which offers free, exclusive content and special promotions. Barnes & Noble was the first company to offer digital lending for a wide selection of books through its LendMeŽ technology, available through NOOK eReading products. Find NOOK devices in Barnes & Noble stores and online at www.BN.com, as well as at Best Buy, Walmart, Staples and Books-A-Million.In addition to NOOK devices, Barnes & Noble makes it easy for customers to enjoy any book, anytime, anywhere with its free line of NOOK software, available at www.bn.com/freenookapps. Customers can use Barnes & Noble’s free eReading software to access and read books from their personal Barnes & Noble digital library on devices including iPad™, iPhone(R), iPod touch(R), Android™ smartphones and tablets BlackBerry(R), PC and Mac(R). Lifetime Library™ helps ensure that Barnes & Noble customers will always be able to access their digital libraries on NOOK products and software-enabled devices and BN.com. Barnes & Noble also offers NOOK Study™ (www.nookstudy.com), an innovative study platform and software solution for higher education, NOOK Kids™ (www.nookkids.com), a collection of digital picture and chapter books for children, and NOOK Books en espańol™ (http://www.barnesandnoble.com/ebooksenespanol), the first-ever Spanish language digital bookstore in the United States.
For more information on NOOK devices and eReading software, updates, new NOOK Book releases, Free Friday™ NOOK Books and more, follow us on www.twitter.com/ebooksbn and www.facebook.com/nookbn.
Nook Color e-book reader review from Consumer Reports [Nov 17, 2010]
Barnes & Noble Expands Award-Winning NOOK Color™ Reading Experience with the Most Requested Tablet Features [April 25, 2011]
– Reader’s Tablet™ Now Offering Popular Apps, Email, Enhanced Web Experience and New Rich Content for Adults and Children
– Customers Can Explore One of World’s Largest Digital Bookstores Featuring New NOOK Apps™, More than 2 Million Books, 150 Interactive Magazines and Newspapers and More Than 12,000 Children’s Chapter and Picture Books
– At Only $249, the Easy-to-Use, Full-Featured NOOK Color is the Best Value in the Tablet Market, Offering a Great Alternative to Expensive Tablets
– Exciting Free Software Update Now Available to All Current and Future NOOK Color CustomersBarnes & Noble, Inc. (NYSE: BKS), the world’s largest bookseller, announced today that it added significant new features and content to the NOOK Color Reader’s Tablet, making what has already been acclaimed as the best reading device on the market, the best tablet value on the market at just $249. With a major update to its bestselling device, Barnes & Noble is delivering more of what NOOK Color customers want: shopping a broad collection of popular apps, staying connected with full-featured, built-in email and an enhanced Web experience. In addition, NOOK Color’s reading experience gets even better with enhanced books featuring in-page video, new interactivity in digital children’s picture books, and now over 150 interactive magazines and newspapers, including new popular titles like The Economist and Food & Wine. All current and future NOOK Color customers can experience all of the great new features in v1.2 now available at www.nookcolor.com/update and provided for free over the air (OTA) via Wi-Fi to customers beginning next week.“NOOK Color offers the best reading experience of any device, and now delivers the most popular tablet features such as engaging apps so customers can play, learn and explore, free, built-in email, an Android operating system update for enhanced Web browsing and more interactive content,” said William Lynch, Chief Executive Officer of Barnes & Noble. “With our new NOOK Apps program, we’ve partnered with the world’s best publishers and developers to offer popular brands like Angry Birds, Epicurious, Uno, Lonely Planet, Dr. Seuss, Little Critter and many more quality and entertaining applications. These and other enhancements, plus new ways for adults and children to experience exciting content, make NOOK Color a great alternative to paying double the price – or more – for an expensive tablet. Our easy-to-use, full-featured Reader’s Tablet is available for only $249, and presents the best value of any tablet on the market.”
Introducing NOOK Apps
NOOK Color customers can get even more out of their Reader’s Tablet – built specifically for reading and complementary experiences – with a collection of top quality apps specially designed to take advantage of NOOK Color’s stunning 7-inch color touchscreen and to keep the whole family entertained, engaged, connected and organized. Enjoy great games like Angry Birds, Uno and More Brain Exercise, and stay up-to-date on news and weather with Pulse and My-Cast. Learn new languages with Lonely Planet Phrasebooks apps, and try new recipes with the app from Epicurious. Keep sharp with pre-loaded crossword puzzles, chess and Sudoku. Stay organized with calendar apps, relax with streaming music from PandoraŽ Internet Radio and spark creativity in children with Drawing Pad and more fun apps made just for kids like Sandra Boynton’s Going to Bed Book.NOOK Color customers can easily discover and download apps in seconds from Shop on NOOK Color, so they can browse complementary apps alongside books, magazines and other content. Customers can explore a growing collection of more than 125 favorite NOOK Apps from leading third-party developers and content providers in categories including Play, Organize, Learn, Explore, Lifestyle, News and Kids. The NOOK Apps offering will continually expand as new high-quality applications, optimized for NOOK Color, are added from the large and growing number of qualified developers and content providers submitting their applications through the company’s new app submission process.
Barnes & Noble offers a selection of free NOOK Apps – including calendar and notes apps, requested by NOOK Color customers – and paid apps, with approximately half of the collection available for $2.99 or less and the vast majority priced at $5.99 or less. Customers will easily find their newly downloaded or preloaded apps by tapping the NOOK Apps button on the Quick Nav menu or Apps section in their library, as well as through the newly refined search. All updated NOOK Color devices will now include NOOK Email™ and NOOK Friends™ apps preloaded in addition to Pandora Internet Radio, Crossword Puzzle, Sudoku, Chess, Contacts and Gallery.
Stay Connected with Email
NOOK Color now helps customers stay connected with the full-featured free NOOK Email application built in to organize Web mail accounts in one inbox. Given NOOK Color’s compact design that fits easily into a purse, jacket or bag, email was one of the most-requested features requested by customers. Connect to Wi-Fi to check and send emails with a full-screen virtual keyboard, making it easier than ever to stay in touch while on the go. NOOK Email works across the top Web mail services including Yahoo! Mail, Gmail™, AOL and Hotmail.Updated Platform and a More Complete Web Experience
NOOK Color’s update to Android OS 2.2/Froyo offers system improvements, enhanced browser performance and a more complete Web experience giving customers access to enjoy even more video, interactive and animated content. NOOK Color now includes support for AdobeŽ FlashŽ Player. Surfing the Web is even better with the ability to easily switch between larger desktop or mobile Web experiences and enhanced pinch and zoom. Additional enhancements include improved global search and quick settings such as battery indicator, shortcuts to settings and audio.Enhanced Reading Experience and More New Rich, Interactive Content to Enjoy
Designed for people who love to read everything in rich color, NOOK Color now has even more engaging and rich content, plus a sliding page turn animation, requested by customers. Easily access personal files transferred to NOOK Color on your customized Home screen.By exploring Barnes & Noble’s more than 2 million digital titles, one of the world’s largest collections of digital reading content, customers will find even more exciting and engaging content to enjoy on NOOK Color.
- NOOK Kids™: Barnes & Noble’s state-of-the-art NOOK Kids digital picture book experience – the first with the innovative Read to Me™ feature – has been expanded with 15 new Read and Play™ titles that bring animation, activities and stories together. In NOOK Color’s innovative Read and Play books, children can interact with their favorite characters and enjoy activities built right into the story they’re reading. Whether it’s drawing with Fancy Nancy or making the dogs go in Go, Dog, Go!, parents and children will enjoy narration, animation and interactivity that fits into the story and plot lines of new Read and Play titles including Splat the Cat, Are You My Mother?, Caps for Sale, Little White Rabbit and more, now available to explore and enjoy.
With more than 350 NOOK Kids digital picture books and more than 12,000 children’s chapter books, Barnes & Noble offers the world’s largest collection of digital content for children. Children can choose stories featuring popular characters like Nickelodeon’s Dora The Explorer and SpongeBob SquarePants, and Disney favorites like Mickey and Minnie Mouse, Snow White and Cars.
- NOOK Books™ Enhanced: Watch that appetizing recipe being made step-by-step or learn how to perfect yoga poses with embedded video and audio in cookbooks, health and fitness, biography, photography and travel books, along with other interactive content on NOOK Color. With more than 225 multimedia titles (and growing), Barnes & Noble offers instructive content including Knitting for Dummies, You: Raising a Child and ELLE: Workout Yoga starring Brooklyn Decker. Learn more about bestselling books from authors including David Baldacci, Pat Conroy, Russell Brand, Keith Richards and many more.
- NOOK Newsstand™: Dozens more favorite magazines and newspapers are now available on NOOK Color – the first reading device to offer popular newsstand titles in rich, full color. From Us Weekly and Elle to The New York Times and The Wall Street Journal, NOOK Newsstand delivers your morning paper and latest magazines right to your NOOK Color, ready to read in an amazing new way. With enhancements to magazine navigation on NOOK Color, it’s even easier to enjoy the full-color, digital edition of the print magazine, including Barnes & Noble’s innovative ArticleView™ feature. Barnes & Noble continues to build its NOOK Newsstand offering, now with more than 150 top full-color magazines and newspapers including recent additions such as OK! Magazine, ESPN The Magazine, Travel + Leisure, National Geographic Kids, Every Day with Rachael Ray, Dwell, Outside, Saveur, The Onion, PC Gamer, Family Handyman and many more. All can be enjoyed with a 14-day free trial, via subscription or purchased in single issue form.
Get Social with NOOK Friends
With the new NOOK Friends App (Beta), NOOK Color creates the go-to social network for people who love to read, and offers even more ways to connect. Customers can create a group of NOOK Friends to easily swap books, get a friend’s take on a new bestseller, discover great new reads or see if someone’s enjoying a book they recommended on the Friends’ Activity tab. NOOK Color customers can view their NOOK Friends’ content ratings and reviews, shared quotes, recommendations and how they’re progressing on their latest book. Check out all or individual NOOK Friends’ LendMe™ books available and track all current and pending sharing activity. Updates to NOOK Color also make it easy for customers browsing the great content available in Shop to share which products they “Like” on Facebook and view how many other Barnes & Noble customers “Like” it, too.NOOK Color v1.2 Now Available
NOOK Color customers can experience all of the great new features in v1.2 immediately at no cost via manual download at www.nookcolor.com/update. A free over-the-air (OTA) update will begin rolling out to customers via Wi-Fi over the coming weeks. Experience the new NOOK Apps and other exciting new features at the NOOK Boutique™ or display in one of Barnes & Noble’s more than 700 bookstores across the country or by visiting www.nookcolor.com. NOOK Color, along with NOOK devices, can also be found at Best Buy, Walmart, Staples and Books-A-Million.
Barnes and Noble NOOK COLOR eBook Reader Tablet [Nov 7, 2010]
Nook Color Goes Froyo [April 25, 2011]
Nook Color Review: Get the Scoop on the Barnes & Noble Nook Color [eBook Readers Resource, Feb 16, 2011]
As one would anticipate, the 7-inch, 1024 x 600 resolution LED-backlit color screen takes up most of the front portion of this reader. Note that the In-Plane Switching (IPS) display utilized here is the same screen technology used in Apple’s iPads and iMacs. Barnes & Noble however, has customized the Nook with its proprietary VividView technology which fully laminates the screen coating, thereby significantly reducing the glare.
…
… despite its VividView treatment, the Nook Color’s IPS display remains pretty reflective, thus, it still doesn’t quite match up to e-ink technology when it comes to providing a glare-free reading experience.
Nook Color review [Engadget, Nov 16, 2010] (emphasis is mine)
It’s hard to believe we’re already writing a review of the Nook Color, considering Barnes & Noble’s first foray into the e-reader world was revealed just over a year ago. In that time, the company has gone from no presence in e-books to owning 20 percent of the marketshare, and now has moved from a somewhat sluggish hybrid E-Ink / LCD device to a full color, tablet-like product. …
… the front of the device is eaten up mostly with that 7-inch, 1024 x 600 IPS display. …
… As we said, the screen is of the 7-inch LCD variety, and at the 1024 x 600 resolution, looks reasonably dense (from a pixel perspective) with a 178-degree viewing angle. Barnes & Noble is particularly proud of the screen, which the company says utilizes its “VividView” treatment to provide less glare. What that really means is that the screen coating is fully laminated against the display itself, making for less tiny, almost-imperceptible unglued areas which can catch light. Still, the display is pretty reflective, making reading in bright locations (like on a subway with stark fluorescent lighting) sometimes difficult. …
… Web browsers and gaming aside, the main focus of the Nook Color is that it’s an e-reader — so how does it fare in that department?
First let’s get something out of the way. Obviously this isn’t an E-Ink screen, so you have to decide if you’re on board or not for reading on an LCD display. If you’re entertaining an iPad or Galaxy Tab, we’ll assume this screen technology is not going to deter you from using the device as a reader. For us, the display tech isn’t a major hang-up — in fact, lots of the staff have been using iPads as reading devices with little to no trouble.
So as far as screen tech goes, the Nook Color looks gorgeous as an e-reader for standard books and goes one step beyond, delivering magazines and children’s books the way they were meant to be viewed. For standard e-book reading, there are tons of options for formatting, fonts, and coloring — even those with poor eyesight should be able to find settings that make the reading experience enjoyable. We really liked reading with the Color, and even though the device doesn’t sport animated page turns (a la the iPad), it does offer great options for notation and word or phrase discovery (you can do dictionary, Google, and Wikipedia searches right from a contextual menu). We also loved that you’re able to share quotes or info about what you’re reading via email, Twitter, or Facebook.
For magazines, the reading format is a bit different. The full pages of the magazine are displayed on the screen, and you can swipe left and right to move through them. What’s even better, however, is a scrubber (for lack of a better term) that you’re able to bring up just below your magazine content which lets you quickly jump through the magazine and then zoom into a page you want to read. We found this option great for skipping ads. Once in a magazine page, you can zoom and pan to see photos up close or read, but the Nook Color also provides a novel (no pun intended) option called ArticleView which lets you break out text on the page into a strip down the middle of the screen with plain, clearly readable content inside. It’s a great idea that worked most of the time. Sometimes, on pages with lots of captions or cutaway text it didn’t seem to capture everything. As avid magazine readers, we really love the option of a unified method of getting periodicals, and the Nook Color is the first device to actually show that it can be done without a tremendous amount of effort (and surprisingly little lost). There’s clearly room to grow in this area (and a lot of content still to nab — the current magazine catalog is only about 70 strong), but we like where it’s headed. We hate to beat a dead horse, but as with the rest of the interface, the magazine experience is hampered by the sluggishness of the UI.
The Nook Color also offers newspapers delivered daily, but we’re not quite as psyched on the layout of the traditional dailies. We found the page ordering and design of these digital editions confusing and clunky. There’s likely a hybrid of what Barnes & Noble is doing with magazines and what the company does with books for these publications — but the current state of daily papers is a bit of a mess on the platform.
The final piece of the puzzle is B&N’s push into the kids’ book market with its new formatting that not only allows children and their parents to page through full color versions of popular kids titles, but introduces a “read to me” function. The premise is rather simple: a professional voice actor reads the copy out loud through the Nook Color’s speaker, and a child can follow along. We’re sure this will be a quality addition to a parent’s arsenal of options for keeping the kids happy. We did have a few issues with some audio skipping early on in one of the books we tested, but it went away quickly and didn’t return. The kids books also offer a scrubber similar to the one found in the magazine section. One thing of note — loading these volumes takes a little more time — though overall the feature worked as advertised.
E Ink and Epson achieve world-leading ePaper resolution
PVI Joins Hands With Epson to Produce E-Paper Displays [May 23, 2011] (emphasis is mine)
PVI`s chairman Scott Liu said that the cooperation marks his company`s entry into the commercial and educational segments, indicating that the company`s e-paper displays will be produced for not only consumer use, but also professional purposes in the future.
To achieve better visibility of Japanese and Chinese words displayed on electronic screens, the two parties are determined to jointly develop 300-dpi, high-resolution e-paper displays, which will be mainly used in commercial and educational e-book readers with screen sizes of 11 inches and above and sold in Japan and mainland China.
In the cooperation, Epson will take charge of manufacturing and providing a high-speed display controller platform for e-paper displays, which incorporates a display controller IC, processor, power supply control IC and related software for optimal operability.
Meanwhile, PVI is engaged in manufacturing and promoting the 300dpi e-paper display, which, with screen sizes of 9.68 inches, 11 inches or above, boast lightweight design, low power consumption, and a vivid, easy-to-read display of words and images.
Accordingly, the cutting-edge product has been sent to customers of e-book readers and system integration for certification and will be set for volume production in the fourth quarter of this year at the earliest.
E Ink and Epson achieve world-leading ePaper resolution [May 16, 2011] (emphasis is mine)
TOKYO, Japan and HSINCHU, Taiwan, May 16, 2011 – E Ink® Holdings Inc. and Seiko Epson Corporation (“Epson”) today announced the joint development of a 300-dpi electronic paper device with razor-sharp text and images for ePaper Document Reader. Combining E Ink’s high-resolution ePaper display and Epson’s high-speed display controller platform, the new device will enable the world’s highest resolution ePaper tablets. With sharply improved readability and ease-of-use the ePaper Document Reader is expected to catch on in business and education settings where huge amounts of data have to be processed, as well as in countries that use character-based text, including Japan and China.
Thin, lightweight, energy-efficient eReaders with easy-to-read, paper-like displays have won over consumers, who are snapping up ePaper devices in unprecedented numbers, causing the market to surge. Demand has also been on the rise in business and education, market segments that require exactly what ePaper provides: the fast and accurate display of enormous amounts of information. Applications in these segments demand higher resolution than that offered by today’s 160-dpi displays due to the need to crisply render, with smooth gradations, engineering diagrams, illustrations, Asian characters, and other fine or intricate content. These market segments also demand faster page navigation and sophisticated user interfaces to allow instant viewing of vast amounts of data.
“As the adoption of eReaders continues to rise worldwide, the opportunities for our EPD technology are expanding in new market segments including business and education,” said Scott Liu, chairman of E Ink. “We continue to improve E Ink’s technology to meet the demands of our customers and the needs of consumers, and this new EPD delivers the low power, sunlight readability and thin, lightweight form factor users have come to expect from E Ink at an even higher resolution.”
“We developed this device specifically to meet the high data demands of business and academia,” said Torao Yajima, managing director at Epson. “Our IC controller and processing power enables the display to handle large files while maintaining the excellent display control and operability found in today’s EPDs, including fast page navigation and a sophisticated user interface.”
Epson’s high speed controller platform is an ideal choice for developers who wish to develop high resolution eTablets with ease and within a very short period.
The respective roles of E Ink and Epson and the products they offer are described below.
E Ink
E Ink will manufacture, sell and support the newly developed 300-dpi ePaper displays, which measure 9.68 inches on the diagonal and have 2,400 x 1,650 pixels. These paper-like, high-resolution displays demonstrate in full the very best features of ePaper: crisp and clear text and images on an easy-on-the-eyes screen, a thin and light form factor, and ultra-low power consumption.Epson
Epson will manufacture, sell and support a high-resolution, high-speed display controller platform optimized for controlling E Ink’s high-resolution display. Leveraging Epson’s experience with image processing technology developed for photo-quality printers, the display controller platform combines a display controller IC, applications processor, system power management IC, and firmware to provide excellent display control and improved operability.Moving forward, E Ink and Epson plan to continue collaborating to promote the popularization of ePaper based devices in the business and education markets by developing technology, expanding and upgrading the product lineup, and providing customer support.
Exhibition plans, high-resolution e-paper device
The jointly developed device will be on display at the E Ink booth at SID, to be held in Los Angeles from May 15 to 20.Related links
News release about Epson’s high-speed, high-resolution display control platform: http://global.epson.com/newsroom/2010/news_20101027.html.
Epson to Provide Display Controller Platform that Sharply Improves e-Paper Product Performance [Oct 27, 2010]
– Platform to enable laser-quality images and high-speed refreshes –
Seiko Epson Corporation (“Epson”, TSE: 6724) today announced that it has developed a new display controller platform for electronic reading devices and other electronic paper products that provides laser-sharp image quality and rapid refreshes. The company will begin shipping the platform to e-paper-based product manufacturers in April 2011.
…
The display control platform will enable e-paper product manufacturers to speed up their time to market by allowing them to efficiently develop products with fast display refresh times and the ability to display images as sharp and clear as any produced by a laser printer. Notably, the platform will facilitate the development of products for business and education applications, which typically require higher image quality and faster displays.
Epson is the world’s no.1* supplier of controller ICs for e-paper displays, partnering with E Ink Holdings Inc. of Hsinchu, Taiwan, the world’s number 1 supplier of e-paper.
…
The display controller platform employs a newly developed e-paper display driving scheme that is unlike those used in current e-book readers. The new driving scheme capitalizes on high-speed image processing technology originally developed for Epson’s photo-quality printers to enable e-paper displays with resolutions of 300 dpi and higher to be refreshed at high speed, which is ideal for higher education, professional office and general business environments.
E-paper devices outfitted with the display controller platform and a high-resolution e-paper display will render intricate content, such as “kanji” characters, mathematical formulas and engineering drawings, as well as illustrations, photographs and other images that require smooth gradations, much more clearly than current e-paper displays. They will also be able to flip through the pages of an e-book much faster than existing e-readers. When combined with sensors, these devices will provide powerful handwriting recognition, a critical function for business applications. The sharp improvement in readability and usability are expected to fuel the popularity of e-paper products in Japan, China, and other regions where Chinese characters are used, as well as in business and education applications where huge amounts of data have to be processed.
E Ink Announces Next Generation Display Platform [July 1, 2010]
E Ink® Corporation, the leading developer and marketer of electronic paper display technology, today announced the Q2 release of its next generation display technology, Pearl. With Pearl, E Ink expands the capabilities of reflective displays, bringing electronic paper performance to the next level. With the whitest reflective displays in the industry, and a contrast ratio now approximately 50 percent greater than today’s products, text on Pearl “pops” from the page, enabling a reading experience most similar to reading text on printed paper.
…
The E Ink Pearl design builds on the current generation of Vizplex designs, which is used in millions of eReader devices today. Due to a unique and proven two pigment system that is extremely stable, the current E Ink products in the market today have demonstrated long life and high reliability, enabling a whole new class of consumer products.
Images and text become crisp on the screen as the contrast between the background and item of interest is increased. E Ink Pearl raises the bar for displays used in digital reading. This allows for eReaders to go from a contrast ratio typical of newspapers, to a higher contrast ratio typical of paperback books. The crisp text and detailed graphics also continue to remain pleasant to view when E Ink products are enjoyed outside. In addition, with 16 gray level depth, E Ink Pearl offers the sharpest rendering of images and allows product developers to display images with smooth tones and rich detail.
Amazon Tablet PC with E Ink Holdings’ Hydis FFS screen
Follow-up: $199 Kindle Fire: Android 2.3 with specific UI layer and cloud services [Sept 29, 2011]
See also:
– Hydis
– E Ink Holdings (8069.TWO) Initiate at Buy: Dual Growth Engines to Propel Earnings [comprehensive 32 pages evaluation by Citi Investment Research & Analysis, a division of Citigroup Global Markets Inc., Aug 4, 2011] HIGHLY RECOMMENDED READ and NOT ONLY FROM PURE SHARES AND FINANACIALS
POINT OF VIEW
Updates: E Ink suspending FFS panel production cooperation agreement with LG display [Nov 25, 2011]
E Ink Holdings (EIH) will suspend a cooperation agreement it signed with LG Display for the production of FFS (fringe field switching) LCD panels and will buy back a sum of corporate bonds (CBs) issued by its Korea-based subsidiary Hydis Technologies from LG Display, according to EIH.
EIH’s production of FFS wide viewing angle panels will not be affected by the suspension of cooperation as EIH has teamed up with Taiwan-based Chunghwa Picture Tubes (CPT), utilizing the panel maker’s 6G production line to produce FFS panels, said industry sources.
Hydis will also continue to hold the patents pertaining to the production of FFS panels although it may lose some orders from clients in Korea, indicated the sources.
The book value of Hydis’ CBs held by LG Display totals KRW34.257 billion (US$30.5 million), EIH revealed. EIH’s board of directors has approved the company’s plan to invest US$30.5 million for the purchase of Hydis CBs, according to a Chinese-language Commercial Times report.
– CPT sees small-size flat panels increase in July [Aug 11, 2011]
CPT will begin volume production of 10.1-inchFFS LCD panels soon, with 7-inchFFS models to follow in September, the company said.
– Amazon 10-inch tablet PC to start mass production in 1Q12 [Aug 31, 2011]
Mass production of Amazon’s 10.1-inch tablet PC reportedly will be conducted in the first quarter of 2012 with Foxconn Electronics (Hon Hai Precision Industry) to handle the orders, according to sources from upstream component suppliers.
In addition to the tablet PC, Amazon also outsources its Kindle e-book reader to Foxconn with an estimated volume of 15-18 million units, accounting for 60-70% of global e-book reader shipments of 25-30 million units in 2011.
Amazon’s 7-inch tablet PC, which is supplied by Quanta Computer, is expected to start shipping in October, the sources added.
– Amazon Tablet rumour round-up [Aug 31, 2011]
Specification details for the tablet PC are sketchy. The Boy Genius Report claims there will be an entry-level tablet (presumably the 7in device), codenamed ‘Coyote’ that will feature a dual-core Nvidia Tegra 2 chip, while the ‘Hollywood’ will be the larger higher-end tablet PC and will sport the new ‘Kal-El’ quad-core mobile chip.
First announced in February during Mobile World Congress in
Barcelona, the new Kal-El quad-core chip is capable of displaying 1440p video on a 2,560×1,600 pixel display. Nvidia also claimed the chips can help deliver up to 12 hours of battery life.…
Researcher at Forrester, Sarah Epps, speculated that the Amazon tablet could come with a $299 price tag in the US, that nearly half the price of many existing Android tablets, and while the price would initially result in a loss for Amazon, it could help to send sales soaring. There’s no doubt that a cheaper price point can cause a surge in sales. After all, HP recently revealed it will manufacture another batch of its TouchPad tablet PC, following “unfulfilled demand” after it slashed the price to $99 in the US and £89 in the UK on announcing it was to discontinue the device. Epps says the $299 (£183) price tag closer to what most consumers want to pay for a tablet, based on a Forrester survey. However, some rumours on the web suggest the tablet PC might be a little higher in price.
– E INK HOLDINGS AND CPT COOPERATE TO EXPAND EREADER AND TABLET MARKETS[July 19, 2011]
Chunghwa Picture Tubes, Ltd. (TAIEX: 2475; “CPT”) and E Ink Holdings Inc. (TAIEX: 8069; “E Ink”) jointly announced today that each of their board of directors had passed a resolution, enabling E Ink to make an investment into CPT with a view to strengthen their collaboration in technology and in production capacity. Through this investment and cooperation, both companies expect to further expand electronic paper and FFS (Fringe Field Switching) panel business. The strategic alliance will further solidify their existing leadership position in eReader, tablets and other mobile devices markets.
The investment will be a total of NT$1.5 billion [US$ 52M] in the form of unsecured convertible bonds issued through private placement in Taiwan. The conversion price will be at NT$3.25 per share. This issue, expected to be completed by the end of July this year, is for a period of 3 years.
This investment enables the expansion of panel production capacity and exchange of related technological information between the two companies. This investment is also aimed at improving the utilization of CPT’s production lines and enabling them to focus on higher-end value-added products.
“This cooperation will strengthen E Ink’s capacity to meet the demand of the fast-growing eReader market while CPT can better utilize their 6th-gen fab,” says E Ink’s Chairman Scott Liu. “More importantly this strategic alliance will expand the relevant markets for both companies”.
The co-operation is expected to result in an integrated supply chain. CPT will also manufacture FFS LCD displays, thereby expanding Hydis’ FFS manufacturing capacity. FFS technology based LCD are the market share leaders in displays for tablets and other mobile devices, just as E Ink’s dual pigment ePaper technology is the market share leader for eReader displays. E Ink’s investment will secure a steady supply of display panels for both its EPD and FFS business.
How Amazon Could Disrupt the Android Tablet Market [Aug 8, 2011]
… the center of its design would be on reading books. That appears to be true, as multiple sources tell me that it will have the best reading experience of any tablet on the market. … Apparently, the company’s key goal is to make the tablet very inexpensive and then use a new business model to own the Android tablet market.
… while its tablet could marginally compete against Apple, this is not the company Amazon is going after with its tablet offering. It is smarter than that. Rather, I believe Amazon’s goal is to be the market leader in Android and be the top seller of tablets with this mobile OS.
… Amazon may actually sell it for as much as 20 to 25 percent below cost. In this situation, think of the tablet as a razor and the Android Appstore, UnBox movie service, and music service as the blades, which can be sold to users over and over again.
…
Now imagine how this could affect the other Android vendors that are making tablets. If Amazon provides a product that is sold under cost with the goal of making up the rest of the cost and profit from apps, services, and even advertising, it could give all of the other Android vendors a serious run for their money. And, given Amazon’s deep ecosystem, other Android vendors would find it very difficult to compete against it. When measuring by units shipped, this method could make Amazon the king of Android tablets very quickly. In fact, I would go as far as to say that it could “own” the Android tablet market.
Amazon to launch tablet PCs in August-September, say Taiwan component makers [June 22, 2011] (emphasis is mine)
Amazon is poised to step into tablet PCs and will launch models as son as August-September, with targeted global sales of four million units for 2011, according to Taiwan-based component makers.
The timing of launch is to meet the peak sales period prior to Thanksgiving in the US and the year-end holidays in the US and Europe, the sources pointed out.
Amazon adopts processors developed by Texas Instruments, with Taiwan-based Wintek to supply touch panels, ILI Technology to supply LCD driver ICs and Quanta Computer responsible for assembly, the sources indicated. Monthly shipments are expected to be 700,000-800,000 units.
Amazon will provide streaming movie services for users of its tablet PCs, the sources noted.
End of Updates
Quanta receives tablet PC orders from Amazon, say upstream sources [May 3, 2011] (emphasis is mine)
Taiwan-based notebook maker Quanta Computer has recently received OEM orders from Amazon for its reported tablet PC and the device will also receive full support from Taiwan-based electrophoretic display (EPD) maker E Ink Holdings (EIH) for supplying touch panel as well as providing its Fringe Field Switching (FFS) technology, according to sources from upstream component makers.
The device’s monthly orders during the peak season are expected to reach about 700,000-800,000 units and Quanta is expected to start shipping as soon as the second half of 2011 with the orders to contribute more than NT$100 billion (US$3.5 billion) to Quanta’s annual revenues in 2011, the sources noted. In response to the report, Quanta declined to comment on its clients.
In addition to Amazon, Quanta is currently also the tablet PC OEM partner of RIM and Sony, while the company has also been aggressive in contact with Lenovo in hoping to land orders from the company for its second-generation LePad.
The sources pointed out that Amazon’s Kindle still has strong sales, but the e-book reader is currently still unable to successfully cut into the markets outside of North America and Europe; therefore, Amazon internally plans to reduce Kindle’s market price to attract consumer demand from the education and consumer market, while will push tablet PC using its advantage in software and content resources to challenge iPad2.
EIH has also recently been in contact with a Taiwan-based small- to medium-size panel maker [presumably CPT, see below] and is aiming to book up the maker’s full capacity through a private investment and will fully supply the capacity to Quanta and such strategy will allow EIH to gain more profit from the patents of its FFS technology.
Update: Amazon Turns to Taiwanese Manufacturers for Tablet Rollout [June 1, 2011]
Planning to roll out own-brand tablet PCs in September this year, online store Amazon.com has reportedly contracted Taiwan`s manufacturers to supply components and assemble the computing devices.
E-Ink Holdings Corp.`s Hydis Technologies Co., Ltd. will supply the unique Fringe Field Switching (FFS) display technology; TPK Holding Co., Ltd. and HannsTouch Solution Inc. will supply touch panels; and Quanta Computer Inc. will assemble the computers.
Informed sources pointed out that Amazon.com will ship around 800,000 tablets a month as the first step of its plan to snatch up over 20% of global market for non-iPad tablets, which numbers around 15-20 million systems a year.
Industry executives estimated Amazon.com`s tablet contracts would bring in Quanta revenue of NT$24-30 billion (US$827.5 million-US$1 billion at US$1: NT$29) and boost its earnings this year alone. They said Amazon.com purposely contracts Quanta instead of Foxconn Electronics Inc. because Apple Inc. has signed up the No.1 contract electronics manufacturer to assemble its iPad and iPhone.
…
Industry executives estimated Amazon.com`s tablets would be more attractive than Motorola`s Xoom and Samsung`s Galaxy for their lower prices.
Update: Why Amazon Will Enter the Overcrowded Tablet Market [May 23, 2011]
In a recent interview with Consumer Reports, Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos was asked if Amazon would make a tablet. He coyly responded with the comment “stay tuned” but gave no other specific details about a product of this nature. He basically confirmed, however, that something like this was in the works. He also pointed out that if Amazon made a tablet device, the reading experience would be at the center of its design.
My sources in Taipei say that the actual product is set to debut in time for the holidays and that the device will use a display similar to the one in the Nook and the Galaxy Tab. They also tell me that the original RFQ wanted a screen that could switch between an easy-to-read black and white E Ink-like display and a color LCD, but that this type of screen, which is already in the works by at least two vendors, will not be ready for the market until at least 2012 or early 2013. So Amazon was forced to use a 10-inch screen that was available now, which is LCD-based. It will also reportedly have a 7-inch model. And I am hearing it will sport a new version of Nvidia’s Tegra quad-core chip and will be using Android as its OS.
E Ink April revenues down sequentially [May 9, 2011] (emphasis is mine)
Taiwan-based electrophoretic display (EPD) maker E Ink Holdings saw April consolidated revenues of NT$2.465 billion (US$84 million) decreasing 26.59% on month but increase 45.41% on year. January-April revenues of NT$12.551 billion rose 87.11% on year, according to the company.
The sequential drop was because Hydis Technologies, its subsidiary in South Korea, delayed shipments of FFS panels to the third quarter of 2011, E Ink indicated.
So manufacturing capability seems to be under significant overhaul to prepare for the H2 CY11 en masse delivery (higher yield) of FFS panels and/or higher quality versions (see below ex. AFFS V, AFFS+).
CPT develops FFS panel and aims to cooperate with E Ink [Jan 21, 2011] (emphasis is mine)
Chunghwa Picture Tubes (CPT) has started development of FFS (Fringe Field Switching) panels and expects to cooperate with E Ink Holding (EIH) and support EIH’s Korea-based subsidiary Hydis’ production capacity to fulfill demand.
…
Panel makers noted that IPS and FFS panels are not easy to produce, hence CPT will not be able to start mass production immediately. Furthermore, capacity for wide viewing angle panels such as IPS is limited, and panel makers will need some learning time before going into mass production.
E Ink`s Subsidiary Hydis Wins Big Order from International Customer [August 16, 2010]
Hydis has ramped up production of FFS products to 75% and lowered that of e-paper products to 25%, compared to 50:50 before.
Hydis to supply IPS panel for Samsung tablet PC, says Digitimes Research [Sept 8, 2010]
LG Display Inks E-Paper Deal [Dec 29, 2009] (emphasis is mine)
The agreement will allow LG Display to tap Hydis’ fringe-field switching technology, which enables liquid crystal displays to be viewed under sunlight and improves their viewing angle.
In return, LG Display will provide consulting to Hydis on production efficiency and quality. Both companies will also work together to source for materials.
Apple’s iPhone 4: Thoroughly Reviewed [June 30, 2010] (emphasis is mine)
The display panel itself uses a subset of IPS (In Plane Switching) display technology called Fringe Field Switching (FFS). Where IPS switches the crystal polarization in the plane of the display with two opposing electrical substrates composed of semi opaque metals (which decreases transmission and viewing angles), FFS uses considerably less metal by arranging the electrodes in a comb [fésű] like structure.
The result is that there’s considerably less metal in back and in front of the pixel, resulting in much higher transmission of light through the display, and higher brightness for a given backlight level. Using FFS to drive pixel switching is critical here because of the high dot pitch in the iPhone 4’s display.
http://www.tftcentral.co.uk/speccontent.htm
… IPS (In Plane Switching) was introduced to try and improve on some of the drawbacks of TN Film. It was developed by Hitachi and was dubbed “super TFT”. They improved on viewing angles up to about 170H. This was done by controlling liquid crystal alignment slightly differently, but unfortunately, can affect response rate of the pixels. As such they are not as good for gaming as TN panels. IPS panels were later developed into Super-IPS (S-IPS) panels by their main manufaturer now, LG.Display (formerly LG.Philips). Production costs were lowered which has meant they have become more widely used. S-IPS offer perhaps the most accurate colour reproduction available in the TFT panel market, and the widest viewing angles as well. They are also free of the off-centre contrast shift which is evident on VA matrices, and as such are commonly the choice of graphics and colour professional displays. Response times were traditionally behind those of TN Film and VA panel variants, but modern IPS panels using response time compensation (RTC) including the new generation of Horizontal IPS (H-IPS),Enhanced S-IPS and Advanced Super IPS (AS-IPS) panels can offer responsiveness to rival both. For more information, see our detailed panel technologies guide.
Hydis website: Greater Outdoor Readability ¦ Tablet Applications
The AFFS technology applied in VIEWIZ tablet applications ensures perfect readability in any environment, even under bright sunlight, and allows you to enjoy the entertainment longer with low power consumption, high brightness, and a fast response time. AFFS’ outdoor readability is significantly improved through lowering the reflectance level of the panel surface. (<1% at white and <0.5% at black)
Hydis website: Low Power Consumption ¦ Mobile Applications
For portable applications, the lower the amount of power needed; the better. Commonly mobile LCD manufacturers must sacrifice transmittance for cost-effectiveness, or reduce the viewing angle to lower power consumption. However, due to its effectiveness in transmittance technology, AFFS manages to reduce power consumption by 30 percent than that of TN for mobile phone applications without sacrificing any of the visible benefits.
More AFFS information from the Hydis website: AFFS Technology, AFFS Progression, AFFS Concept, Technological Benefits, Sunlight Visibility ¦ Mobile Applications, Fast Response Time ¦ Tablet Applications, Scratch Prevention ¦ Tablet Applications, Low Power Consumption ¦ Notebook Applications, Increased Color Reproduction ¦ Notebook Applications, Increased Transmittance ¦ Notebook Applications, AFFS+: True Evolutionary Progress, AFFS+ Concept: True Mobile Lifestyle Technology, Technological Benefits: True Viewing Pleasure
Motion Computing F5 [review] — Superior display technology [Sept 15, 2009]
While the original Hydis AFFS was not an outdoor display, AFFS+ adds reflective areas to what is essentially a transmissive design, and also adds special polarizers and cell design optimized to reduce surface reflectance. As a result, AFFS+ screens are bright and vibrant indoors while being amazingly vibrant and readable outdoors, combining the best of both worlds better than any of the older transflective displays can.
One problem we faced when reviewing this latest version of the Motion F5 was that the original was already so good. The Hydis AFFS display with Motion’s View Anywhere technology on our “old” F5 was already excellent, and so the difference between it and the latest AFFS+ with all the trimmings was not as large as it would have been comparing the new F5 with a standard display.
That said, below are some comparison shots. The first picture shows the new (black housing) and the older F5 (gray housing) side by side outdoors, facing away from the sun. The first thing you notice is that, at full brightness, the new display is considerably brighter. That can make a difference in readability.
Motion Computing J3500 [review] — Fantastic display [June 22, 2010]
The LCD in the J3500 uses AFFS+, an evolutionary advance to AFFS that lowers power consumption and increases outdoor readability. It has a resolution of 1280 x 800 pixel and uses an LED backlight. Brightness is about 320 nits, but thanks to the AFFS+ technology you’d swear it was a lot more than that. Since the display essentially uses transmissive technology with certain transflective features, the screen is bright and crisp indoors while being amazingly vibrant and readable outdoors.
In everyday use, the J3500 display’s outdoor performance is excellent. The perfect viewing angle from all directions means you never have to tilt and angle the tablet to see what’s on the screen. The display itself excels in eliminating unwanted reflection or diffusion. Where other displays appear matte or milky or are overcome with reflections, the J3500’s stays perfectly readable. In head-on, direct sunlight the display is still readable, here thanks to the inner reflectance of the Hydis LCD.
How does it all work? Hydis claims that the reflective polarizer used in AFFS+ displays lowers surface reflectance and minimizes screen scattering. They claim a screen reflectance of under 0.3% (and here I assume the value supplied by Hydis means total reflectance of all surfaces). Given that the effective contrast ratio of an LCD used outdoors is computed as 1 + (emitted light / reflected light) and that average sunlight is about 10,000 nits, the J3500 screen has an effective contrast ratio of 1 + (320 / >.003 x 10,000) = 1 + >10.66 = >11.66. On our scale that means “definitely readable in sunlight” and subjective viewing tests confirm that.
Gartner has already indicated Amazon’s Android/tablet strategy 6 weeks ago: Curated App Stores, Security, And Why The Next Kindle Will Be An Android Device [March 23, 2011] (emphasis is mine)
There has been some serious rhetoric against Apple’s “walled garden” approach in recent months but, like it or not from a philosophical standpoint, it certainly provides more protection for users than the Android Market.
… from the point of view of the user – particularly the non-computer savvy user – all of this just works. Couple of clicks to search for your app. One click to purchase, download and install. And – most important of all – Trojan-free once it arrives. Curated app stores are essential to the well-being of the ecosystem.
Google needs to emulate that experience with its Market, though its very credo seems to suggest that will never happen. Yet without it the store will descend into anarchy, with users scared to purchase for fear of what new and terrible piece of malware they might be introducing to their phone or tablet.
So along comes Amazon from nowhere, and in one fell swoop it might have beaten Google at its own game. Amazon has the position of trust. It has the customer review infrastructure in place. It already has our credit card details (who hasn’t bought anything from Amazon?) And now it has an Android Appstore (TM) to go with it. Now all it has to do is make sure that the stuff it sells is safe.
It has promised to do that, by applying both quality control and security vetting to the app review process. So why wouldn’t you buy from there rather than the Google Android Market? Well, I would – I already have. But my Auntie Edna probably wouldn’t. It is way more difficult than the Apple process, and right now requires a multi-step process just to get the Appstore app on your phone. It is not that difficult, but it is certainly a sub-optimal user experience compared with the “It Just Works” approach of Apple.
So what needs to happen for the Amazon Appstore (TM) to succeed? Simple – it needs to arrive pre-installed on Android devices. Lots of them.And while I am sure Amazon is probably in discussions with a bunch of carriers to achieve that objective, what better way to make sure it happens than to ship it in huge numbers on Amazon’s very own Android tablet – The Kindle IV?
Give us that great Kindle experience with Android flexibility at a super-low price point, and you might just have your iPad-killer… I certainly haven’t seen one among the devices announced so far.
Introducing Amazon Appstore for Android [Amazon press release, March 22, 2011] (emphasis is mine)
Amazon.com, Inc. (NASDAQ:AMZN) today announced the launch of the Amazon Appstore for Android at www.amazon.com/appstore. Customers can now find, discover – test! – and buy Android apps using the convenient shopping experience that Amazon customers know and love. An innovative new feature called “Test Drive” will enable customers to test apps on a simulated Android phone. Customers control the app through their computer using a mouse.
“Test Drive lets customers truly experience an app before they commit to buying. It is a unique, new way to shop for apps,” says Paul Ryder, vice president of electronics for Amazon.com. “Our customers have told us that the sheer number of apps available can make it hard to find apps that are high quality and relevant to them. We’ve spent years developing innovative features that help customers discover relevant products. By applying these features – plus new ones like Test Drive – we’re aiming to give customers a refreshing app shopping experience.”
In addition, the highly anticipated Angry Birds Rio for Android debuts today, exclusively in the Amazon Appstore. For a limited time, customers have the opportunity to download it for free. In fact, the Amazon Appstore will offer customers a paid app for free every day.
Customers can shop in the Amazon Appstore from any computer using a Web browser. They can also access the Amazon Appstore directly on their Android phones or tablets, once they’ve installed the Amazon Appstore application. When customers purchase an Android app from the Amazon Appstore they can use the app on any of their Android devices.
The Amazon Appstore will include popular Amazon features like personalized recommendations, customer reviews, and 1-Click payment options. There will also be detailed product descriptions, including screenshots and video content that shows apps in action. In order to ensure customers have the best possible experience with the apps they purchase, all apps are Amazon-tested before they’re made available in the Amazon Appstore.
For the first time ever on the Android platform, ad-free versions of Angry Birds and Angry Birds Seasons will launch today exclusively in the Amazon Appstore. The Amazon Appstore also features a selection of bestselling and new apps from top developers, including Pac-Man, Doodle Jump Deluxe, Evernote, WeatherBug Elite, Zagat to Go, TweetCaster Pro and more.
“The Android platform’s openness provides a great opportunity to reach new customers,” said Mikael Hed, CEO of Rovio, the maker of Angry Birds. “We are thrilled to offer the Angry Birds suite of Android games using the easy and trusted shopping experience that Amazon is known for.”
Developed in conjunction with Twentieth Century Fox, Angry Birds Rio features the animated stars of the studio’s upcoming motion picture, RIO, debuting in theaters worldwide on April 15. Angry Birds Rio will launch with 60 dedicated levels, with more content to follow via app updates.
Visit www.amazon.com/appstore today to get Angry Birds Rio for free and browse thousands of apps at great prices.
Note: all apps are Amazon-tested before they’re made available in the Amazon Appstore
Amazon Introduces New Kindle Family Member: Kindle with Special Offers for $114 [Amazon press release, April 11, 2011]
Millions of people are reading on Kindle, Kindle has more 5-star reviews than any other product on Amazon, and in just five months the latest-generation Kindle became the bestselling product in the 16-year history of Amazon.com. Today, Amazon introduced a new member of the Kindle family – Kindle with Special Offers for only $114. Kindle with Special Offers is the same #1 bestselling Kindle, plus special offers and sponsored screensavers. Kindle special offers and sponsored screensavers display on the Kindle screensaver and on the bottom of the home screen. Learn more about all three latest-generation Kindle family members–$114 Kindle with Special Offers, $139 Kindle, and $189 Kindle 3G–at www.amazon.com/kindle. Kindle with Special Offers is now available for pre-order to customers in the U.S. and will ship on May 3.
“We’re working hard to make sure that anyone who wants a Kindle can afford one,” said Jeff Bezos, Amazon.com Founder and CEO. “Kindle with Special Offers is the same #1 bestselling Kindle – and it’s only $114. Kindle is the best deal in consumer electronics anywhere in the world.”
Buick, Olay (Procter & Gamble), Visa, and Amazon.com Reward Visa Card (Chase) are sponsoring the first series of screensavers specially-designed for Kindle’s high-contrast, no glare electronic ink display (for screensaver examples, visit www.amazon.com/aboutkindlespecialoffers). Examples of deals that will be delivered directly to Kindle with Special Offers devices in the initial weeks include:
- $10 for $20 Amazon.com Gift Card
- $6 for 6 Audible Books (normally $68)
- $1 for an album in the Amazon MP3 Store (choose from over 1 million albums)
- $10 for $30 of products in the Amazon Denim Shop or Amazon Swim Shop
- Free $100 Amazon.com Gift Card when you get an Amazon Rewards Visa Card (normally $30)
- Buy one of 30 Kindle bestsellers with your Visa card and get $10 Amazon.com credit
- 50% off Roku Streaming Player (normally $99)
To make sure customers don’t miss any of the offers, a full list of active offers will be available from the menu of Kindle with Special Offers at any time.
Amazon is also introducing “AdMash” – the free Kindle app and website where customers choose the most attractive and engaging display advertisements that will become Kindle sponsored screensavers. Kindle’s sponsored screensavers are specially-designed display advertisements that take advantage of Kindle’s high-contrast, no-glare electronic-ink display. Before these advertisements can be presented to Kindle customers, they are first previewed by customers using AdMash. Users are presented with pairs of sponsored screensaver candidates and asked to select which one they prefer. Screensavers with the most preferred votes qualify to become sponsored screensavers. The AdMash Kindle app will launch in the coming weeks – for a preview, visit www.amazon.com/aboutkindlespecialoffers.
In addition, Kindle with Special Offers customers can give Amazon hints on the style and types of sponsored screensavers they would like to see. From the Manage Your Kindle page on Amazon.com, customers can use Kindle Screensaver Preferences to indicate whether they like to see more or less screensavers that include elements such as landscapes and scenery, architecture, travel images, photography, and illustrations. Together, AdMash voting and Kindle Screensaver Preferences help Amazon present sponsored screensavers that customers find attractive and engaging. For screenshots of Kindle screensavers, AdMash and Kindle Screensaver Preferences, visit www.amazon.com/aboutkindlespecialoffers.
“The opportunity to offer custom-designed Kindle screensavers was a natural fit for Buick because Kindle is such a unique device surrounded by a community of intelligent, passionate people,” said Craig Bierley, Director of Advertising and Promotions, Buick. “Kindle’s high contrast e-ink display eliminates glare and is perfect for emotionally engaging and impactful brand imagery, allowing us to connect with Kindle readers wherever and whenever.”
Kindle with Special Offers includes all the same features that helped make the third-generation Kindle the #1 bestselling product in the history of Amazon.com:
- Paper-like Pearl electronic-ink display, no glare even in bright sunlight
- 8.5 ounce body for hours of comfortable reading with one hand
- Up to one month of battery life with wireless off eliminates battery anxiety
- Kindle Store with over 900,000 books – largest selection of the most popular books
- Seamless integration with free “Buy Once, Read Everywhere” Kindle apps for iPad, iPod touch, iPhone, PC, Mac, BlackBerry, Windows Phone and Android-based devices
Learn more about all three latest-generation Kindle family members–$114 Kindle with Special Offers, $139 Kindle, and $189 Kindle 3G–at www.amazon.com/kindle. Advertisers and agencies interested in learning more about Kindle sponsorship opportunities can contact kindle-sponsorships@amazon.com.
Amazon to Sell the Kindle Reader at a Lower Price, but With Advertising Added [The New York Times, April 11, 2011] (emphasis is mine)
Amazon is shaving another $25 off the price of its Kindlee-reader, this time with the help of advertisers.
The newest Kindle is $114. Amazon will sell its e-book reader at the lower price by showing ads as screen savers and at the bottom of the home screen, and by selling special offers, similar to Groupon and other daily deal sites.
The ads are the latest step in Amazon’s transition from e-commerce retailer to full-fledged digital media company. By selling ads that will show up next to digital content, Amazon is laying further groundwork that could enable it to someday sell tablet computers that would compete with Apple and Google Android tablets.
…
The ads and offers appear to be another significant step toward Amazon building its own tablet and competing more directly with the iPad, said James L. McQuivey, an analyst at Forrester Research who studies digital media and consumer electronics. Amazon opened an Android app store last month and has been hiring Android software developers.
An Amazon tablet could tie together the seemingly disparate parts of the company’s business, Mr. McQuivey said, including e-commerce, e-books, video and audio.
“I can so easily see them selling a tablet in the future at a dramatically reduced price,” he said. “To me, this is a way for them to test that out and to start talking to advertisers.”
Details [as of May 3, 2011]
New, Lower Price
Get the same bestselling Kindle for $25 less—only $114.Special Offers & Sponsored Screensavers
Receive special offers directly on your Kindle. Examples include:
- $10 for $20 Amazon.com Gift Card
- $6 for 6 Audible Books (normally $68)
- $1 for an album in the Amazon MP3 Store (choose from over 1 million albums)
- $10 for $30 of products in the Amazon Denim Shop or Amazon Swim Shop
Special offers and sponsored screensavers display on the Kindle screensaver and on the bottom of the home screen—they don’t interrupt reading.
Kindle for Android Now Tailored for Tablet Computers [Amazon press release, April 21, 2011] (emphasis is mine)
Today, Amazon announced an update to Kindle for Android that brings new features and adds support for tablet computers running Android’s Honeycomb, including the Motorola Xoom. The latest version of Kindle for Android includes an integrated immersive shopping experience tailored for tablets, a new layout for newspapers and magazines designed for the unique interface of Honeycomb, and dozens of other new enhancements that take advantage of the larger screens. Like all Kindle apps, Kindle for Android includes Amazon’s Whispersync technology, which saves and synchronizes a customer’s books and bookmarks across their Kindle, iPad, iPod touch, iPhone, Mac, PC, BlackBerry, Windows Phone and Android-based phones and tablets. Customers can learn more about Kindle for Android at www.amazon.com/kindleforandroid and download the app from the Amazon Appstore for Android or Android Market.
“We’ve taken all the features customers love about Kindle for Android, and created a beautiful new user interface and a seamless shopping experience tailored to the look and feel of Honeycomb tablets,” said Dorothy Nicholls, Director, Amazon Kindle. “As always, Kindle customers ‘Buy Once, Read Everywhere,’ so Kindle for Android is the perfect companion for the millions of customers who own a Kindle and a way for customers around the world to download and enjoy books on their Android phone or tablet even if they don’t yet own a Kindle.”
New features of Kindle for Android include:
- Seamless integrated shopping experience tailored for tablets gives you quick access to personalized recommendations, customer reviews, and more
- Refined newspaper and magazine layout including full color images
- Ability to pause, resume download at any time
- Enhanced word look-up capability (for Android-based phones and tablets) with built-in dictionary with over 250,000 entries and definitions.
The Kindle Store offers the largest selection of books people want to read, including 110 of 111 New York Times Bestsellers and New Releases from $9.99. Millions of older, out-of-copyright, pre-1923 books are also available to read. Kindle for Android offers customers many features that are unique to the Kindle and Kindle App experience, including:
- “Buy Once, Read Everywhere” – sync and read your books, last page read, bookmarks, notes and highlights across Kindle devices and the most popular devices and platforms
- Worry-Free Archive – Amazon automatically backs up your books and highlights online in your Kindle library where they can be re-downloaded wirelessly anytime on any Kindle device or app
- Unparalleled shopping experience – Get all of the features you love about shopping on Amazon.com, including customer reviews, personalized recommendations, and instant 1-click buying using your Amazon account information
For over two years, Amazon has been building and introducing a wide selection of free “Buy Once, Read Everywhere” Kindle apps for iPad, iPod touch, iPhone, Mac, PC, BlackBerry, Windows Phone and Android-based devices that let customers read and sync their reading library, bookmarks, notes, and highlights with the device or platform of their choice. Learn more about Kindle apps at www.amazon.com/kindleapps. Customers can download Kindle for Android from the Amazon Appstore for Android or Android Market.
E Ink Holdings EPD prospects are good
See also:
– Hydis
– E Ink Holdings (8069.TWO) Initiate at Buy: Dual Growth Engines to Propel Earnings [comprehensive 32 pages evaluation by Citi Investment Research & Analysis, a
division of Citigroup Global Markets Inc., Aug 4, 2011] HIGHLY RECOMMENDED READ and NOT ONLY FROM PURE SHARES AND FINANACIALS POINT OF VIEW
Updates:
– EIH posts sharp revenue declines in December [Jan 9, 2012]
E Ink Holdings (EIH) has announced consolidated revenues of NT$1.59 billion (US$52.57 million) for December, 2011, a sharp decline of 55% sequentially and 57% on year. For all of 2011, revenues totaled NT$38.43 billion [US$1.27B], increasing 53% from a year earlier, according to a company filing with the Taiwan Stock Exchange.
Affected by seasonal factors, EIH is expected to see its revenue continue to drop by a double-digit rate in the first quarter of 2012, the Chinese-language Commercial Times quoted industry watchers as indicating.
– EIH looks to reach its shipment goal for 2011 [Dec 23, 2011]
Despite a decline in revenues in November, E Ink Holdings (EIH) will still be able to reach its goal of shipping 25-30 million EPD (electrophoretic display) products in 2011 with a gross margin of 30%, according to the company.
EIH posted revenues of NT$3.57 billion (US$117.88 million) for November, up 9% on year but sown 33% on month.
While shipments of FFS (fringe field switching) panels have started generating revenues for the company, high-margin EPD products still account for the majority of EIH’s total sales, allowing the company to maintain a gross margin of over 30%, indicated industry sources.
– E-book reader sales are tripling every year [Aug 17, 2011]
Display Search, a market research firm that is putting on the onference, estimates that e-book display emand could hit around 27 million units this year. That’s about three times the number sold in 2010. It shows that e-book reader sales are holding on to a slice of the portable market, despite
challenges from Apple’s iPad tablet computer.“This technology has already merged and it is in the mass market,” [chief marketing officer Sriram] Peruvemba said.
The competition between e-book readers and Apple’s tablet is a familiar one. It’s like using a specific-purpose device, or using something like a Swiss Army knife. So far, the e-book reader has survived because it has done a better job of providing an electronic reading experience to consumers.
Due to the popularity of the Kindle, e-book reader sales have tripled every year since 2006. That’s a lot of progress for a new kind of display, dubbed an ePaper display, that debuted with the sale of about 100,000 units in 2006. Last year, E Ink Holdings generated $650 million in sales, and this year it expects to surpass $1 billion in revenue, Peruvemba … said.
…
In its history, E Ink raised $150 million and it will exceed $1 billion in revenue. By comparison, makers of organic light emitting displays have spent perhaps $30 billion and have yet to make a return on that investment. That’s the nature of the display business. E Ink estimates it is the most profitable company in displays. It helps to have a novel idea.
A 6″ E Ink Pearl panel running on the Freescale i.MX50 EVK, showing the quick refresh rate possible with such a setup:
– E Ink Holdings hikes 2011 EPD shipments to 25-30 million units [July 29, 2011]
– E INK HOLDINGS AND CPT COOPERATE TO EXPAND EREADER AND TABLET MARKETS [July 19, 2011]
Chunghwa Picture Tubes, Ltd. (TAIEX: 2475; “CPT”) and E Ink Holdings Inc. (TAIEX: 8069; “E Ink”) jointly announced today that each of their board of directors had passed a resolution, enabling E Ink to make an investment into CPT with a view to strengthen their collaboration in technology and in production capacity. Through this investment and cooperation, both companies expect to further expand electronic paper and FFS (Fringe Field Switching) panel business. The strategic alliance will further solidify their existing leadership position in eReader, tablets and other mobile devices markets.
The investment will be a total of NT$1.5 billion [US$ 52M] in the form of unsecured convertible bonds issued through private placement in Taiwan. The conversion price will be at NT$3.25 per share. This issue, expected to be completed by the end of July this year, is for a period of 3 years.
This investment enables the expansion of panel production capacity and exchange of related technological information between the two companies. This investment is also aimed at improving the utilization of CPT’s production lines and enabling them to focus on higher-end value-added products.
“This cooperation will strengthen E Ink’s capacity to meet the demand of the fast-growing eReader market while CPT can better utilize their 6th-gen fab,” says E Ink’s Chairman Scott Liu. “More importantly this strategic alliance will expand the relevant markets for both companies”.
The co-operation is expected to result in an integrated supply chain. CPT will also manufacture FFS LCD displays, thereby expanding Hydis’ FFS manufacturing capacity. FFS technology based LCD are the market share leaders in displays for tablets and other mobile devices, just as E Ink’s dual pigment ePaper technology is the market share leader for eReader displays. E Ink’s investment will secure a steady supply of display panels for both its EPD and FFS business.
Hanvon first to adopt E Ink-developed color e-paper display [June 15, 2011] (emphasis is mine)
Hanvon Technology, the largest China-based vendor of e-book readers, is the first client adopting a color e-paper display developed by Taiwan-based E Ink Holdings (EIH) and will launch 9.68-inch color e-book readers in the China market in July, according to EIH chairman Scott Liu.
Booming sales of tablet PCs have not impacted global demand for e-book readers, with both market segments growing fast, Liu said, adding global shipments of e-paper display products in 2011 will double or even triple those of 2010.
The average production cost of e-paper displays will drop by 15-20% every year in the near future, approximately offsetting annual decrease of 15-20% in average selling price (ASP) of e-book readers, Liu noted.
Touch e-book readers tend to become a trend, with touchscreens mainly based on infrared and electromagnetic technologies.
End of Updates
EIH sees EPS more than double on year in 1Q11 [April 28, 2011] (emphasis is mine)
Electrophoretic display (EPD) maker E Ink Holdings (EIH) has reported net profits of NT$1.67 billion (US$57.71 million) on revenues of NT$10.09 billion for the first quarter of 2011. The earnings translated into an EPS of NT$1.56 for the quarter, which were more than double the NT$0.70 a year earlier but down from NT$1.80 recorded in the previous quarter.
Shipments of EPD products will stay flat in the second quarter due to conservative buying from the LCD segment, and therefore second-quarter revenues will be down slightly from the levels recorded in the first, according to company chairman Scott Lin.
Sales of EPD products contributed 60-70% to EIH’s total revenues in the first quarter and LCD products made up the remaining 30%, the company noted.
With demand for e-book readers expected to continue growing, the global market for EPD products is likely to expand 2-3 fold on year in 2011, EIH estimated.
Amazon’s recent move to cut the price of Kindle e-book readers from US$139 to US$114 in the US market will help drive up EIH’s shipments of e-paper, EIH asserted.
Global sales of EPD products increased 300% in 2010 after the launch of iPad, and so the launch of iPad 2 will have a limited impact on the e-paper industry, EIH commented.
See also the latest update: E Ink and Epson achieve world-leading ePaper resolution [May 23, 2011]
Digitimes Insight: 2011 global e-book reader shipments to reach 27 million units [April 28, 2011]
Demand for e-book readers remained strong in first-quarter 2011, with global shipments soaring 236% on year to 4.8 million units. Digitimes Research believes global e-book reader shipments will reach 27 million units in 2011.
Among the brand-name vendors, Amazon will continue to be the market leader with an 60% share of global shipments in 2011. Barnes & Noble may hold on to second place, but its gap with third-place Sony will narrow.
North America will remain the biggest market for e-book readers, accounting for 72% of global shipments, but growth in the area is slowing down. E-book reader vendors are now aggresively expanding their presence in the Europe market, which is registering higher-than-average growths.
Monotone e-book readers will remain the mainstream in the next three years, during which no breakthrough in developing color devices can be expected. Global e-book reader shipments will reach 63 million units by 2014.
Source: Digitimes Research, April 2011
E Ink posts strong revenue gains in 1Q11 [April 8, 2011]
Electrophoretic display (EPD) maker E Ink Holdings (EIH) has posted consolidated revenues of NT$3.36 billion (US$115.94 million) for March, up 18.3% sequentially and 79.6% on year.
For the first quarter of 2011, revenues reached NT$10.09 billion, increasing 101.2% from a year earlier. Both the monthly and quarterly figures were the company’s highest records.
Strong marketing for the Kindle e-book readers by Amazon in Europe helped boost EIH’s shipments of EPD products in March, according to a Chinese-language Commercial Times report.
E Ink to add investment in China subsidiary [March 31]
Electrophoretic display (EPD) maker E Ink Holdings (EIH) has decided to add investment of US$8.0 million in its China-based subsidiary, Transcend Optronics (Yangzhou), which makes tablet PC-use LCD modules (LCMs).
EIH also has plans to take out a 5-year syndicated bank loan of NT$5 billion (US$170 million) for its own, and another US$100 million for its four subsidiaries, E Ink Corporation, Tech Smart Logistics, Transcend Optronics (Yangzhou) and Rich Optronics (Yangzhou).
EIH’s board also decided to buy back 11 million shares of its stock, equivalent to a 1.02% stake, at NT$35-55 per share from March 31-May 30, with the stock to be transferred to employees.
EIH enters EPD-based signage segment [March 16, 2011]
Electrophoretic display (EPD) maker E Ink Holdings (EIH) has ventured into advertising signage in the US, Korea, Taiwan and other markets, leveraging its Ink-In-Motion technology, according to the company.
The EPD signage business will be developed by its Surf business unit, said the company, noting that the business unit has teamed up with Neolux to promote the new business in Korea, and has also cooperated Sinopac bank to launch signage boards in Taiwan.
Supply of e-paper products remains smooth, says EIH [March 15, 2011] (emphasis is mine)
Electrophoretic display (EPD) maker E Ink Holdings (EIH) has stated that its production and shipments of EPD products have remained steady as only a small portion of components is coming Japan.
EIH purchases TFT backboards used in EPD production from Taiwan-based Chimei Innolux (CMI) and Chunghwa Picture Tubes (CPT), explained the company, noting that shipments of FFS panels from its Korea subsidiary Hydis have not been disrupted.
The company expects its March revenues to bounce back to its historical high of NT$3.88 billion (US$131.66 million) recorded in January after the revenues dropped to NT$2.84 billion in February.
E Ink to triple EPD capacity in 2011 [Feb 16, 2011] (emphasis is mine)
Amid increasing demand for e-paper, as well as FFS panels for tablet PCs and smartphones, electrophoretic display (EPD) maker E Ink Holdings (EIH) plans to expand its EPD capacity by 2-3 times in 2011, and will also expand its FFS panel capacity, as well as its component suppliers and OEM proportion, according to company president YS Fu.
Market sources expect EIH’s revenues for 2010 to reach NT$25.18 billion (US$856.47 million), on a net profit of NT$4.03 billion for the year. With expanding market demand and capacity, EIH’s revenues may double to NT$40-50 billion in 2011, the sources added.
In terms of EPDs, Fu indicated that the e-book reader market will continue to increase as research firm data showed that 40% of current iPad owners also own an e-book reader, and 23% of the iPad users showed willingness to purchase an e-book reader in the next year. The data also indicated that e-book readers and tablet PCs are individual products with no conflict in the market, Fu added, saying that the paper like characteristics of EPD is the major reason the e-book reader market will continue to grow.
Fu noted that e-book readers currently still focus on the commercial market and it will take time to develop the education market. With increasing content and dropping prices, the global e-book reader market is expected to reach 10 million units in 2010 and increase to 20-30 million units in 2011, of which the US market will generate the largest demand, while Europe will rapidly increase.
The tablet PC market is gaining attention, and the global market is expected to exceed 50 million units in 2011. Along with surging demand from the smartphone market, EIH’s shipments for FFS panels are expected to increase significantly, and the company plans to expand its capacity as well as looking for new OEM partners in China, in addition to its existing OEM partners Chimei Innolux (CMI) and Chunghwa Picture Tubes (CPT)
Pixel Qi’s first big name device manufacturing partner is the extremely ambitious ZTE
Latest update: ZTE Light Tablet with Pixel Qi screen [June 3, 2011]
While this is not yet with the anti-glare anti-reflective coating and the reflective mode for touch is not yet implemented in this ZTE sample, this is how the ZTE Light with Pixel Qi might look like, the fully optimized version should be shipping in the third quarter [end of Q3] of this year.
(See also: Pixel Qi solar powered [June 3, 2011] and Shizu Pixel Qi Tablet shown at Computex 2011 [June 3, 2011])
++ Pixel Qi Joins with Shanghai Shizhu Technology to Develop a Family of Multimedia Devices Based on Pixel Qi’s Low-Power, Sunlight-Readable Displays [Oct 9-13, 2011]
Leveraging Pixel Qi’s technology, four tablets will be launched for China’s growing e-reader market, and are being shown at GITEX in Dubai. Combining Pixel Qi’s displays with Shizhu’s design creates an excellent multi-media experience in a slim, lightweight design with extended battery life. Shizhu has a key partnership with Southern Media Group, whose paper publications reach millions of subscribers daily, and whose media set the pace for investigative journalism, popular and gossip content, and online presence in China.
(See also: Content Really Matters for Tablets [Mary Lou Jepsen’s blog, Oct 12, 2011])
Latest update: Pixel Qi launches 10.1″ super thin 1280×800 screen [May 31, 2011]
Here’s a new comparison between Pixel Qi and the iPad followed by Mary Lou Jepsen’s status report on the latest Pixel Qi news, their first showing of the new 1280×800 thinner 10.1″ wide view screen.
[10:20 — 10:25]:
“We think our technology will be the dominant display technology in 5 years.”
[11:17 — 11:41]:
“It’s bit market driven from our customers because we get to exist and to engage some of the largest factories that have ever been made, and for that to work their economics need very high volumes. We need to have customers who really commit to large purchase orders almost before we start to design.”
See also: Mary Lou Jepsen of Pixel Qi at TEDxTaipei [May 9, 2011] (emphasis is mine)
Also watch: John Ryan COO of Pixel Qi and John Watlington Vice President of Hardware Engineering at OLPC
You have to consider, while it has been 23 months ago that I [i.e. Charbax] published my first Pixel Qi interviews from Taiwan (2), (3), (4), (5), (6), (7), (8), (9), (10), (11), (12), (13), (14) while that might sound like a long time, in the display industry, 2 years is peanuts. Things move rather slowly there. Since then, there has been an economic crisis and a sort of re-focus from netbooks to tablets, although netbooks have sold more than 100 million units in 3 years, the display investments are focused on tablets. The display business can be considered to be the worlds biggest non-profit industry, the 5 biggest LCD makers who produce 90% of the worlds LCDs, produce for $120 Billion in screens every year but can only make small profit margins out of that because of the strong competition and the large volumes shipped. Those companies that produce the worlds LCD screens have very high costs, very high risks, little flexibility. Let’s hope Pixel Qi has amply well convinced the big LCD makers like Quanta, CPT, Chi Mei, Samsung, LG, Sharp, Sony, Foxconn, let’s hope that they have all signed with Pixel Qi and that they are all right now in the process of tuning the mass manufacture of millions of these screens for all the worlds upcoming Chrome OS notebooks, ARM Powered Macbooks, Kindle4s, iPad3s, a solution for using the interactive UIs of Android on all the worlds e-readers. It would also be nice to double the battery runtime and improve outdoor readability on all the worlds Smartphones using Pixel Qi.
On Mobile World Congress 2011 the Chinese ZTE Announces Smart Terminal Strategy Aiming At the Middle-to-High-End Markets [Feb 15] (emphasis is mine):
The smart terminal strategy signifies ZTE’s accelerated move to embrace the middle-to-high-end markets, while demonstrating its commitment to offering an entire range of star products in the smart device market. The product portfolio will span from smart personal devices to smart home and business products. Currently very few companies in the industry can offer smart products in all three categories.
…
The latest IDC report shows that ZTE was among the top five in the world in terms of the sales volume of handsets in 2010. According to analysts, ZTE’s previous terminal strategy focusing on middle-to-low-end products obviously no longer fits with the current competition landscape and the company’s own position in the industry.
ZTE, with its dominant presence in the smart terminal arena and deep understanding of smart technologies trends, has been increasing its investment in this field. In the last two years, it has become a mainstream player in the global smart terminals markets with the introduction of star products including the first WM6.5 smartphone, Bluebelt 2, the Blade Android smartphone, and the Light tablet PC. The great performance of the Blade in high-end markets including Europe and Japan has also proved its operational ability in the smart products market.
Smart terminal devices at MWC 2011
ZTE is showcasing an entire range of smart terminal products to the industry at this year’s Mobile World Congress, including the Skate Android smartphone with its 4.3-inch super-large screen, the Amigo Android slide-cover phone specifically designed for young and fashionable users who like social networking; the Blade Android smartphone and the Brew MP handset, the F952, which is based on the WAC (Wholesale Applications Community) standard, as well as the Rugged Blade which incorporates “three proof” (dustproof, waterproof, and shockproof) functionality.
ZTE also showcased the Light series tablet PCs – including the 7 inch Light which is popular in Europe, Australia, and Russia, the Light 2 which will be the first tablet that uses the Pixel Qi’s sunlight-readable liquid crystal screen and DOLBY sound system technology, and the Light 10-inch, which features a faster processor, supports Android 3.0 and will be launched in Q3 2011.
In addition, with the Internet TV Box, ZTE is able to integrate TV as a consumer electronics product for home use into the camp of smart terminal products as it uses multiple Internet access modes including 3G, HSPA+ and WiFi to make it a novel integrated terminal combining Web surfing, HD movies, video calls, gaming, and DLNA at the same time.
Latest update: Pixel Qi launches new displays at Computex [May 19]
At Computex 2011 we will show two new additions to our family of sunlight-readable low-power displays. Both the new 7″ display (1024×600 resolution) and the new 10″ display (1280×800 resolution) build on Pixel Qi’s award-winning technology delivering excellent rendering of multi-media and e-reader content under any conditions – and at a power savings of up to 80% over conventional LCDs.
Latest update: Pixel Qi takes aim at Android tablets with higher-res 10-inch and 7-inch reflective LCDs (hands-on) [May 31, 2011]
… the team has returned to Computex with the 7-inch (1024 x 600) panel that was teased in December last year and a new higher resolution 10-inch (1280 x 800) panels offering an 80 percent power savings over conventional LCDs, according to Pixel Qi. In fact, the 10-inch panel consumes just 2.7W in color mode or 0.4W in reflective “eReader” mode.
We had the chance to see the new displays up close here at Computex and were immediately struck by the improvement in pixel density on the 10-inch panel. Making the leap to WVGA has been a major boon, as identical images looked sharper and better-defined than on the 1024 x 600 current-gen Pixel Qi display. The brightness on the new screen is lower than on its predecessor, but that’s because the company still hasn’t finalized things — we’re promised significantly better readability with the backlight off in the final product and brighter pictures when it’s on. The 7-incher, originally intended for mass production in the second quarter will now sample in Q3, to be followed by the more pixel-dense 10-inch model, which will hit production in Q4. Scope out the newness in the gallery below or jump past the break for video.
This is extremely good news for Pixel Qi trying to pursue device manufacturers to use its outstanding screen technology for more than a year already. Their press release is quite proud to announce that ZTE introduces 7” Tablet PC with Pixel Qi’s Sunlight Readable Low Power Display [Feb 14] (emphasis is mine):
Leveraging leading edge technologies from both companies, the Light 2 tablet combines the features and performance of a 1GHz processor running the Android operating system with a 7-inch high-resolution Pixel Qi display to offer an excellent multi-media experience in a slim, light weight design with extended battery life.
“We are excited to partner with Pixel Qi to bring their innovative display technology to market,” said Adam Zhang, VP & President of ZTE Mobile Broadband Device. “It brings a new level of performance to our family of tablet PC’s, rendering excellent images under any light conditions.”
“Working with ZTE, a world-leading telecommunication company with a global customer base, provides us with an extraordinary opportunity to address a world-wide market,” added Dr. Mary Lou Jepsen, CEO and founder of Pixel Qi. “We look forward to a long-lasting partnership.”
The display is manufactured in a Pixel Qi partnership with CPT (Chunghwa Picture Tubes Ltd.). Based in Taoyuan, Taiwan, CPT manufactures nearly 40 million displays per month and is the #2 manufacturer of small and middle sized LCDs in the world. [See more on that in my post Pixel Qi and CPT alliance for sunlight readability [Dec 22, 2010]]
The ZTE Light 2 tablet PC features a 12.6mm super slim design, Android 2.2, a hi-speed 1GHz processor and 4GB of memory. The 7-inch low-power Pixel Qi display has multi-touch capacitive touch screen and a screen resolution of 1024×600 pixels delivering a pixel density of 170 pixels per inch.
Pixel Qi’s award-winning 3Qi display technology renders quality full-color images plus full-motion video and, in high ambient light levels, its reflective mode contributes to the image allowing the backlight to be turned down or off. This delivers significant power savings and a very comfortable reading experience.
Update: Why Amazon Will Enter the Overcrowded Tablet Market [May 23, 2011] (emphasis is mine)
In a recent interview with Consumer Reports, Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos was asked if Amazon would make a tablet. He coyly responded with the comment “stay tuned” but gave no other specific details about a product of this nature. He basically confirmed, however, that something like this was in the works. He also pointed out that if Amazon made a tablet device, the reading experience would be at the center of its design.
My sources in Taipei say that the actual product is set to debut in time for the holidays and that the device will use a display similar to the one in the Nook and the Galaxy Tab. They also tell me that the original RFQ wanted a screen that could switch between an easy-to-read black and white E Ink-like display and a color LCD, but that this type of screen, which is already in the works by at least two vendors, will not be ready for the market until at least 2012 or early 2013. So Amazon was forced to use a 10-inch screen that was available now, which is LCD-based. It will also reportedly have a 7-inch model. And I am hearing it will sport a new version of Nvidia’s Tegra quad-core chip and will be using Android as its OS.
So at least quantity wise there are still problems with PixelQi manufacturing.
More information on this update:
Amazon Tablet PC with E Ink Holdings’ Hydis FFS screen [May 3, 2011]
The new 7” display has already been shown at CES 2011. See the detailed First look at Pixel Qi’s 7 inch display, new netbooks, tablets [Jan 6] report from Liliputing and the video from them:
Pixel Qi’s displays can function both as full color LCD screens and as high contrast, grayscale displays which are viewable without a backlight by relying on ambient lighting — much like an E Ink display. The difference is that while E Ink screens have slow refresh rates, a Pixel Qi display can handle full motion video whether the screen is in color or grayscale mode. The only difference is whether the backlight is on or off.
Turning off the backlight not only makes a netbook, tablet, or other device with a Pixel Qi screen readable in direct sunlight — it also drastically reduces the amount of power used by the display — which is often one of the most power-hungry components of a computer.
The new, smaller display has the same 1024 x 600 pixel resolution as the 10 inch model. Pixel Qi has also improved the viewing angles — although they’re still not great. With the backlight off, you can view the screen from pretty wide angles. But in full color mode, the colors start to wash out pretty quickly when you view the screen from the side, which is a bigger problem with tablets than netbooks.
And here is a report from the press conference on ZTE Looking to Break Into High-end in 2011 With Smartphone, Tablet, & STB Selection [MWC] [Feb 14] (emphasis is mine):
I attended ZTE’s press conference – it wasn’t the most popular at this event, of course. But they’ve done exceptionally well with their smartphone push in 2010 and are looking to up the stakes in 2011. They will do this with a selection of new smartphones and tablets geared toward the high-end.
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ZTE’s campaign plans becoming somewhat clear from their companion press release ZTE Unveils Skate Smart Phone at GSMA Mobile World Congress [Feb 15] (emphasis is mine):
Inspired by the skateboard, the ZTE Skate is fashionably thin and lightweight at only 120g, featuring a large 4.3-inch screen to provide an optimal web surfing experience to consumers. It uses the Android 2.3 operating system, an 800MHz processor and the Adreno 200 graphics processing unit (GPU) to support the widescreen, high-definition display. In addition, the ZTE Skate also incorporates a 5MP camera, multimedia Bluetooth extension, A-GPS capability, hardware compass, and G-sensor.
The open Android operating system ensures that Skate can run an extensive range of apps, meeting not only the in-depth customization needs of operators, but also providing a user-friendly UI, and convenient and powerful multimedia features. Skate supports GSM/GPRS/EDGE at 900/1800/1900MHz and HSDPA/UMTS at 900/2100MHz, as well as WiFi internet access.
The ZTE Skate is expected to be available from May 2011 in markets worldwide. The smart phone launch also kicks off ZTE’s “Light Your Smart World” smart product strategy.
…
An IDC report shows that ZTE has become one of the world’s top five handset makers – in 2010 the company’s global shipment of handsets reached 60 million units and terminal products over 90 million units. Signature models such as the ZTE Blade and ZTE Light became bestsellers across multiple markets, achieving outstanding sales records in more than 30 countries including Europe and Japan, within a very short period of time. The ZTE Blade was also frequently referred to as the “Most Valuable Smartphone” by media in these markets.
Pretty impressive numbers which – also given ZTE’s very close releationship with the operators – is giving a pretty good chance that the Pixel Qi based tablet will become a bestseller quite soon.
ZTE has outstanding position and extraordinary market aspirations which could benefit Pixel Qi’s long unfulfilled aspirations as well . This could be best understood from the following press releases and reports:
China’s ZTE aims for top 3 in telecom gear [Reuters, Feb 14] (emphasis is mine):
It would be a major move for ZTE, which is smaller than its better-known Chinese counterpart Huawei, and holds roughly 5 percent market share in wireless gear, according to Bernstein Research.
“We want to be in the top three in terms of revenues and market share,” said Xu Ming, vice-president of wireless services in an interview at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona.
Founded in 1985 in the southeastern Chinese city of Shenzhen, ZTE earned about half of its revenues outside China last year by selling both handsets and fixed and wireless network gear.
It benefits from a low-cost base like Huawei, but its margins are lower because of its lack of scale in many business lines, according to analysts.
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ZTE Records RMB100 Billion [US$15.2B] Contract Sales in 2010 [Feb 15]:
The fastest-growing vendor in the global telecom sector
14 February 2011, Shenzhen – ZTE Corporation (“ZTE”) (H share stock code: 0763.HK / A share stock code: 000063.SZ), a leading global provider of telecommunications equipment and network solutions, today announced that in 2010 it secured contract sales worth up to RMB100 billion and a growth rate of 26%, making ZTE the fastest-growing vendor in the global telecom sector.
ZTE made this milestone achievement despite the current economic turmoil. The global market and domestic market in China both experienced a deterioration in 2010, with an annual decline in telecom investment in each market by 3% and 14% respectively.
According to a Frost & Sullivan report, “Insights on 2010 Market Performance”, ZTE has the highest compound annual growth rate (CAGR) among the top vendors in the global market. It recorded a CAGR of 28.01% between 2008-2010 and 37.48% between 2006-2010.
ZTE has achieved 29% growth of its contract sales in overseas markets especially in Europe and North America. A growing number of leading players such as France Telecom, América Móvil, MTN and Softbank embark on co-operation with ZTE and appreciate the firm’s commitment to excellent delivery. ZTE’s terminal products — Blade, Racer and Light — were sold out in the European market for the first time, highlighting the company’s strong brand reputation.
The 3G investment in China market slowed compared with the peak of 2009, and fell from RMB 160 billion in 2009 to RMB 122 billion in 2010. However, tri-network integration boosted the investment in fixed networks which enabled ZTE to achieve 22% growth in the domestic market.
Stabilization in its market share of wireless product s and focus on the 3G terminal market will consolidate ZTE’s market position and guarantee its steady and sustainable growth in the future.
ZTE Announces Preliminary Financial Results for 2010 [Jan 28] (emphasis is mine):
(Hong Kong, 27 Jan 2011) – ZTE Corporation (“ZTE” or the “Group”) (H share stock code: 0763.HK / A share stock code: 000063.SZ) today announced its 2010 Preliminary Financial Results.
Applying PRC ASBEs, during the year under review, the Group’s revenue from principal operations was approximately RMB70,332 million [US$10.7B], representing an increase of 16.69% compared to 2009. Net profit attributable to shareholders of the company was RMB3,254 million, representing an increase of 32.39% against 2009 and earnings per share amounted to RMB 1.18. The increase in net profit was mainly attributable to Group sales growth and the recognition of investment income from the listing of one of the company’s associates, Nationz Technologies Inc. by way of an initial public offering.
As of 31 December 2010, the total assets of the Group increased by 20.40% to RMB 82,287 million compared to the end of the previous year; Shareholders’ equity attribute to the owners of the company increased by 37.28% to RMB 23,097 million compared to the end of the previous year, which was mainly attributable to an increase in retained profits during 2010 and the growth in share capital and capital reserves following the company’s placing of new H shares in January 2010 and the exercise of the company’s A share Warrants in February 2010.
ZTE says 2010 net profit up 32 pct on better sales [Reuters, Jan 30] (emphasis is mine):
ZTE 2010 net profit 3.25 bln yuan vs 3.1 bln yuan f’cast
* After extraordinary items, net profit down to 2.8 bln yuan (Adds details, background, analyst quote)
HONG KONG Jan 27 (Reuters) – ZTE Corp (0763.HK)(000063.SZ), China’s No. 2 telecoms equipment maker, reported a better-than-expected 32.4 percent rise in 2010 net profit on Thursday, helped by improving demand for infrastructure projects.
ZTE said it expects to make a net profit of 3.25 billion yuan [US$0.5B] for the full year 2010, better than expectations for a 3.1 billion yuan net profit, according to a poll of 21 analysts surveyed by Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S.
The company made a net profit of 2.46 billion yuan in 2009, it said in a statement posted on the Hong Kong stock exchange. It also had to take a one-time extraordinary item that lowered its net profit to 2.8 bln yuan, but did not give any further details.
“The bottom line results look fairly positive,” said Alen Lin, an analyst with BNP Paribas in Hong Kong. “Looking at the revenue figures, it’s likely that India has already contributing to the company’s numbers.”
New Delhi banned Chinese telecoms equipment on security concerns for most of last year and only allowed sales to resume in September, hitting revenues at ZTE and its bigger rival Huawei Technologies [HWT.UL].
Together the two companies grew up selling equipment to the Chinese mobile market but have increasingly become formidable players on the world stage scoring major contracts in Europe and some developing countries.
In the United States, however, there has has been opposition from some factions that have raised concern about the security threats posed by a Chinese company selling telecoms equipment to U.S. operators.
“The U.S. has never counted much for ZTE, and I think this will likely remain the case for at least this year,” said Lin at BNP Paribas. (Reporting by Kelvin Soh; Editing by Hans Peters)
Pixel Qi and CPT alliance for sunlight readability
Could this alliance produce a screen which consumes only 0.5 watts in mono mode with backlight switched off and 1.25 watts in color, half of Pixel Qi’s current 2.5 watts, when the backlight switched on? Moreover a screen which is sunlight readable in both modes? We will find out at the CES 2011 exhibition in Las Vegas in early January 2011.
Follow-up: Pixel Qi’s first big name device manufacturing partner is the extremely ambitious ZTE [Feb 15] and the screen for it is manufactured by CPT
Latest updates:
1. Pixel Qi launches new displays at Computex [May 19, 2011]
At Computex 2011 we will show two new additions to our family of sunlight-readable low-power displays. Both the new 7″ display (1024×600 resolution) and the new 10″ display (1280×800 resolution) build on Pixel Qi’s award-winning technology delivering excellent rendering of multi-media and e-reader content under any conditions – and at a power savings of up to 80% over conventional LCDs.
2. CPT expects input of glass substrates for small- to medium-sized panels to exceed 50% of total input in July [May 27, 2011] (emphasis is mine)
Taiwan-based TFT-LCD panel maker Chunghwa Picture Tubes (CPT) has received increasing orders for small- to medium-sized panels from Samsung Electronics, white-box handset vendors and vendors of tablet PCs, and expects input of glass substrates to make such panels to exceed 50% of total input of glass substrates in July, according to the company.
CPT shipped 350 million small- to medium-sized panels in 2010, 139.1 million panels in January-April 2011, and is expected to see 2011 shipments grow by about 40% from 2010, according to industry sources.
Currently, CPT has a 6G plant with a monthly production capacity equivalent to an input of 110,000 glass substrates, two 4.5G plants each with that of 90,000 substrates and a 4G plant with that of 70,000-75,000 substrates.
In addition to TFT-LCD panels, CPT has stepped into production of touch panels through making touch sensors at domestic plants and then delivering them for production of touch panel modules at its plant in Fuzhou, southeastern China, with production of such modules accounting for 10% of total revenues currently. CPT is setting up integrated production lines of touch panels at the Fuzhou plant, and hopes that touch panel production can make it become the largest Taiwan-based maker of small- to medium-sized panels.
3. CPT looks to strong tablet PC panel shipments starting 3Q11 [June 2, 2011]
Chung Picture Tubes (CPT) is expected to see its shipments of 7- and 10.1-inch flat panels for tablet PC applications increase substantially starting the third quarter as the company’s panels have entered design-in for more than 20 tablet PCs to be launched by PC vendors soon, according to market sources.
CPT has stepped into production of touch panels in order to provide a total panel solution for tablet PCs and therefore win more orders, the sources said. Other panel suppliers that also adopt a similar strategy include Chimei Innolux (CMI) and HannStar Display.
CPT now produces 1-1.5 million panel modules for tablet PCs, the sources indicated. The company is also outsourcing tablet panel production to meet customer demand.
Only Apple and Hewlett-Packard (HP) have products featuring a 9.7-inch panel, while other vendors including China’s white-box players focus on 7- and 10.1-inch models, the sources commented.
Annual demand for tablet PCs is estimated at more than 50 million units, the sources said, adding that Apple currently grabs an almost 60% of the market. The remaining 40%, or 15-20 million tablets, is being shared among the other system vendors.
4. Pixel Qi takes aim at Android tablets with higher-res 10-inch and 7-inch reflective LCDs (hands-on) [May 31, 2011]
… the team has returned to Computex with the 7-inch (1024 x 600) panel that was teased in December last year and a new higher resolution 10-inch (1280 x 800) panels offering an 80 percent power savings over conventional LCDs, according to Pixel Qi. In fact, the 10-inch panel consumes just 2.7W in color mode or 0.4W in reflective “eReader” mode.
We had the chance to see the new displays up close here at Computex and were immediately struck by the improvement in pixel density on the 10-inch panel. Making the leap to WVGA has been a major boon, as identical images looked sharper and better-defined than on the 1024 x 600 current-gen Pixel Qi display. The brightness on the new screen is lower than on its predecessor, but that’s because the company still hasn’t finalized things — we’re promised significantly better readability with the backlight off in the final product and brighter pictures when it’s on. The 7-incher, originally intended for mass production in the second quarter will now sample in Q3, to be followed by the more pixel-dense 10-inch model, which will hit production in Q4. Scope out the newness in the gallery below or jump past the break for video.
Pixel, Qi and CPT announce manufacturing partnership [Dec 21]:
Pixel Qi and CPT (Chunghwa Picture Tubes) announce today their LCD manufacturing partnership. Together the companies are developing three new screens of various sizes which will reach the market at various times in 2011.
This alliance started early last summer when CPT showed a transflective screen of its own design at a Taiwanese trade show. Discussions between the two companies at that show made it apparent that Pixel Qi and CPT should work together to bring stronger product to market faster. A close alliance was formed and the teams have been working together quietly all fall. They have created samples of a 7” 1024×600 screens scheduled for mass production in early Q2 2011, which will be first publically shown at the CES 2011 exhibition in Las Vegas in early January 2011. This represents an expansion of Pixel Qi’s manufacturing strength beyond its first LCD manufacturing partner who has been shipping Pixel Qi’s 10” screen.
CPT commented this afternoon: “We are excited to be working with Pixel Qi to bring their new transflective LCD technology to market. The combination of Chunghwa Picture Tubes expertise in volume LCD manufacturing and Pixel Qi’s innovative low power and sunlight readable display technology promises innovative LCDs for smartphones, tablets and notebooks in 2011.”
CPT, based in Taoyuan, Taiwan, manufactures nearly 40 million screens per month, and is the #2 mid-size LCD manufacturer in the world.
Dr. Belle Fu (傅珮倫 ), vice president of manufacturing at Pixel Qi, said ”This great alliance will bring out a robust sequence of exciting screens during 2011 and it’s an exciting development for the whole industry”
Pixel Qi, based in Taipei, Taiwan (Neihu) and San Bruno, California , is the first fab-less LCD designer in the world and focuses on high-performance, low-power, innovative LCDs. Its technologies have won multiple display-industry and electronics innovation awards. Pixel Qi is a spin-off of One Laptop per Child where this screen technology was initially developed for the $100 laptop; nearly 3 million screens using this new technology have shipped in the last three years.
CPT/Pixel Qi co-develop low-power transmission TFT-LCD panel to start mass production in 2Q11 [Dec 24]
CPT confirmed its cooperation with Pixel Qi but added that there is no specific time-frame for either mass production nor capacity.
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Regarding its cooperation with Pixel Qi, CPT noted that it is optimistic about reflective panel technology, and hopes launch the panel as soon as possible because of demand for small- to medium-size mobile devices, but CPT added that the Pixel Qi panel currently is still in development.
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However, Pixel Qi’s technology still requires backlighting and production yields are still a major concern.
CPT small- to medium-size panel shipments exceed 350 million units in 2010 [Jan 7, 2011]
… and the company aims to ship 500 million units in 2011.
CPT has increased its market share in the global small- to medium-size panel market to over 13% from 7.3%.
CPT has announced consolidated revenues of NT$5.25 billion (US$179.37 million) for December, down 8.8% sequentially and 13.4% on year.
…
CPT noted that the company is strategically reforming its production line in order to meet product developments and client demand. The 4.5G (LA1) line resumed production in 2010 and some of the capacity was transformed for the production of capacitive touch sensors. CPT has entered the supply chain of first-tier handset vendors and monthly shipments of touch sensors have reached three million units.
CPT SunLight Viewable Low Power Screen Technology [Nov 5]
Now they have produced another screen technology that is so new that they all haven’t even named it, they just call it: SunLight Viewable Low Power Screen Technology. I’ve actually been holding off on this story for about two weeks trying to get more information on it, like how much power it actually consumes. They claim that it’s less then 1/2 the amount of a normal screen but by looking at it there is no way you’d think this is possible.
Colorful Sunlight Readable Screen at the event Taitronics Show in Taipei. Unfortunately, the company has not yet provided details of technical specifications and has not clearly defined the energy consumption. By comparison, other technology as interesting and promising is Pixel Qi, which consumes only 0.5 watts in mono mode with backlight switched off and 2.5 watts in color, with the backlight switched on.
CPT offers Transflective Screen [June 11]
… it’s a 1366 x 768 resolution transflective panel that its makers claim has a pixel pitch of 0.16305 x 0.16305. CPT further said their display panel has a contrast ratio of 400, reflectivity of 5 and viewing angle of 170/170. The new CPT display panel can boast of a color gamut of 60% MTSC while also having a brightness of 200 nits, all this while being 50 percent more efficient than a regular LCD display. These figures, CPT says translates to a brighter display while having a higher contrast ratio and an easy readability even in bright sunlight conditions.
However, in spite of all the high words, the display still seems to be a notch below that of the Pixel Qi screen and its energy efficiency is not in the same league as that of the former as the Pixel Qi technology is known to be 5 times less power sapping with backlight turned off than the CPT screen that promises to bring down power consumption by only 50 percent. While a 50 percent less power drawn from the battery can’t actually be termed bad but what can be said is there is still scope for development.
But there is one area where CPT scores comprehensively over Pixel Qi and it is in them being already a screen manufacturer. So producing the new transflective screen won’t be much of a problem for CPT. Pixel Qi is however is not as fortunate and latest reports is pointing to them having difficulty on zeroing in on a manufacturer that would give shape to their 3Qi screens. Pixel Qi is a more refined technology but if its products are nowhere in the market, than it comes to a naught. And it is where CPT has a distinct upper hand
See also: Marvell ARMADA with sun readable and unbreakable Pixel Qi screen, and target [mass] manufacturing cost of $75 [Nov 4]
Hanvon – E-Ink strategic e-reader alliance for price/volume leadership supplementing Hanvon’s premium strategy mostly based on an alliance with Microsoft and Intel
Following the strategic alliance between Marvell, Pixel Qi and OLPC on extremely low-cost consumer devices specially built for the cloud there are other cloud related alliances aimed at mass produced clients with sun readability. One of them is the Hanvon – E-Ink alliance which is the most visible and product-wise the most developed one. Such a strategy is also quite well supplementing Hanvon’s premium strategy which is mostly based on the Microsoft platform. Its cooperation on the new convertible classmate PC design with Intel is also going sharply against the Marvell, Pixel Qi and OLPC effort. Hanvon’s approach is also well aligned with component technology makers (such as Epson Seiko) tightly cooperating with E-Ink to sharply increase the quality and refresh rate of electrophoretic display (EPD) technology in 2011. See the latest update: E Ink and Epson achieve world-leading ePaper resolution [May 23, 2011]
Worth to read along with this: Gartner: media tablets are the new segment next to mobile PCs and desktops, as well as web- and app-capable mobile phones [April 16, 2011]
Regarding E Ink Holdings’ market position see the Undermining E-Ink and single-purpose E-readers [Aug 23, 2010 – Jan 10, 2011] report. What follows here is mostly summarizing Hanvon’s (Hanwang’s) position and future plans/opportunities.
Hanvon turns to e-book reader solutions combining hardware and software [Dec 28]:
As China-based e-book reader maker Hanvon Technology has recently achieved sales over one million units, the company plans to expand its business model from only selling hardware to providing solutions that combine hardware and software, according to an executive of Hanvon.
Hanvon is optimistic about the sales of e-book readers in 2011 and believes the company will have better shipment growth than the market average. However, the company declined to give a forecast.
Sources from upstream component makers also pointed out that despite consumer purchases of e-book readers in China are in fact increasing, 40% of the e-book reader sales in China are still contributed by government or enterprises, as they are giving the devices away as gifts. Since the contribution from these procurement orders are difficult to estimate, therefore Hanvon was unable to give a forecast for its performance.
As for tablet PCs, since Hanvon currently still cannot find an advantage in the market, the company will maintain its focus on e-book readers.
E Ink Holdings (EIH) – formerly Prime View International (PVI) – is the global leader of the electrophoretic display (EPD) market, while Hanvon is the leading vendor of e-book readers in China. … The E Ink chairman believes the e-book market will have high growth for the next 10 years, while his Hanvon counterpart thinks there should be more China e-book reader brands. …
Q: Can you talk about the current development and cooperation between EIH and Hanvon.
Scott Liu: EIH has improved the whiteness, contrast ratio and color performance of the new color EPD. Hanvon is handling the overall product design, and they will focus on special markets such as educational institutions, private companies and government offices for the color e-book reader.
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Liu Yingjian: EIH and Hanvon have been working together for many years. I would like to pay my respect to EIH, which decided to explore the potential of e-paper, including the acquisition of E Ink in order to have a tight control of the supply chain, when most people in the market were skeptical about such a sector.
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Our expectations for e-book readers are firstly demand from paperless offices and then the educational market. Paperless demand is huge, as vendors do not have to worry about content, and it fits the current popular trend of low-carbon life-style. In the educational market, bookbags are too heavy for students, and there will be huge demand.
Q: Will Hanvon and EIH have further cooperation in the educational market in the future?
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Liu Yingjian: We have had several meetings regarding the educational market, and we’ve concluded that there are several lines that we cannot trespass.
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Hence we have several proposals for promotions in the educational market, First, we will focus on the regions with better economic development as consumers in these regions have the means to purchase e-book readers. Second, we will focus on non-textbook reading materials as wealthy families may purchase the products for their children. Third, we will run trials at junior high schools, universities or some other grades. I believe the educational market will be substantial in 10 years.
Regional trials have been a success, with Shanghai being the most active region. Shanghai is the richest area in China with the highest GDP, and the municipal government has made a five-year plan to popularize the use of e-book readers for educational purposes, and a lot of preparation work needs to be done.
Q: Is there a concrete plan regarding cooperation between EIH and Hanvon for the educational market?
Liu Yingjian: The color e-book reader using EIH’s EPD will be tried out by a class of 500 students in Shanghai in the semester starting in September 2011. But trial use of e-book readers in classroom has already started in Yangzhou. We are now able to meet the two basic requirements for the educational market: color display and handwriting input.
Q: There are companies like Foxconn in Taiwan that have introduced e-book readers for students using TFT LCD panels or Mirasol displays from Qualcomm. What’s EIH’s opinion about the competitiveness of other technologies? What is Hanvon’s evaluation of other technologies?
Scott Liu: In fact, other technologies are not mature yet, while EIH has already introduced its color EPD, which is ready for mass production. But as far as I know, makers using other technologies usually will introduce products when the technologies are still at the lab-development phase, and it will be impossible for them to reach mass production in just a few months.
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Q: What does EIH think about Qualcomm’s investment in Taiwan in the future, and the fact that Qualcomm will soon start mass production?
Scott Liu: Based on my understanding of Qualcomm’s technology, there are some difficulties for mass production. Even if Qualcomm starts mass production, it will still not able to compete with EPD due to high cost, especially with the high investment amount for setting up a new 4.5G plant, and the depreciation cost could kill a newly developed business.
On the contrary, EIH is mass producing its EPDs on fully depreciated production lines. It has recently added a 5G line and possibly will add a 6G line in the future. EIH has absolute advantage in terms of production capacity. I think there may be a market for Qualcomm’s display products, but judging from its volume production cost, Qualcomm will probably focus on high-end applications.
Liu Yingjian: It is a challenge to produce reflective display products, but it have been proven successful in black and white displays. However, color displays based on reflective technology remain a big challenge for production. But a lot of people commented that the performance of our color EPD displays exhibited (at FPD International) was of high standard.
The products we have launched are better than colored newspapers, but are still worse than magazines and TVs. The color performance of color e-paper is not as rich as TFT-LCD, but what’s more important is that color e-paper does not have side effects on our eyes.
…
Q: Any other expectations for color e-book readers?
Scott Liu: The basic application for color e-paper is still the e-book reader, and we don’t think that we should sacrifice the quality of black-and-white while doing color. The present color EPD is the first version, which means it is a product that meets the basic EIH standard, and the company will continue to improve the product.
The present color EPD uses color filters. We are making maximum use of the high-reflectivity characteristic of color filters, but this is only the short-term solution. For the long-term solution, we still hope to develop a particle-based electrophoresis technology to dislay colors without color filters. The development will take a longer time, and I expect some achievements in the next few years.
….
Source: Digitimes Research, December 2010
Part I. The e-reader market
E-paper maker announces income spike [Aug 11]
Sales of global e-readers are expected to double to 20 million units next year as retail price has fallen to less than US$200 plus contract service
Global sales of 20-25 million e-book readers projected for 2011, says E Ink chairman [Oct 28]
Global e-book reader sales in 2010 are expected to reach 10 million units at least, and the forecast for 2011 is upward adjusted from 18 million units originally, to 20-25 million units, according to chairman Scott Liu for Taiwan-based E Ink Holdings.
e-Reader Market Will Reach 54M Units in 2015 by Displaybank’s e-Reader Industry Trend and Market Forecacast [Nov 16]
Tapping educational e-book reader market needs 2-3 years, says E Ink chairman [Aug 18]
Liu indicated that the Shanghai government aims to replace printed textbooks with e-books in five years, while the Korea government also plans to do the same by 2014.
…
EIH currently is the supplier of e-book readers in a trial program for adopting e-books at school in Jiangsu, China, Liu added.
Although some countries are stepping up efforts promoting e-reading in schools, it may take years before e-books can really start replacing printed textbooks, as the process involves so many different sectors ranging from content, hardware, platform development to government policies, market observers said.
Global e-book reader shipments to be 2-3 times higher in 2H10, says E Ink chairman [Aug 11]
Price-cut competition for e-book readers among global vendors including Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Sony and Hanvon is expected to stimulate demand in the second half of 2010, with total shipments expected to be 2-3 times those in the first half, according to Scott Liu, chairman of Taiwan-based EPD (electrophoretic display) maker E Ink Holding.
…
Liu indicated that with the prices for e-book readers dropping significantly, players who only produce e-reading devices with no content support are coming under threats of being forced out of the market by the first-tier players such as Amazon and Barnes & Noble who will continue to dominate the market.
…
E Ink added that clients are now able to run pricing campaigns because their EPD orders have already reached the agreed amounts, allowing them to have discounted prices, Liu said, adding that his company is happy to offer the discounts to help stimulate growth of the e-reading market.
…
Amazon’s latest 6-inch Kindle without 3G connection only costs US$139, reaching the pricing sweet spot, and it is expected to generate significant growth for the vendor, he said.
Liu said that vendors will soon be able to provide sub-US$100 e-book readers judging from the market growth, and E Ink will help clients further lower the production costs.
Global e-book reader shipments fall short of forecast in 2Q10, says Digitimes Research [July 28]
A total of 1.35 million e-book readers were shipped to the global market in the second quarter of 2010, 33.2% fewer than the originally projected 2.02 million units, chiefly because shipments of new models were delayed to the third quarter, according to Digitimes Research.
Two other factors also prevented shipments from reaching the target. Telecom carrier China Mobile Communications’ subsidized sales of e-book readers were weaker-than-expected in the China market, and volume shipments of SiPix’s e-paper solutions were delayed.
Digitimes Insight: China e-book reader market smaller than expected in 2010 [July 14]
Digitimes Research has downward adjusted its 2010 projected total e-book reader shipments in the China market from 1.5 million units originally to 900,000-1 million units, as China Mobile Communications’ subsidized sales of its e-reading device have so far been much below expectations.
China Mobile Communications originally planned to procure one million e-book readers for subsidized sales in the China market in 2010, but the company actually only purchased 30,000-40,000 units in the first half of 2010, Digitimes Research noted.
Worldwide e-book reader shipments to reach 28 million by 2013, says Digitimes Research [March 24]
Global e-book reader shipments will increase from 700,000 units in 2008 to 28 million units in 2013, representing a CAGR (compound annual growth rate) of 386%, according to a recently published report from Digitimes Research.
The special report on e-book readers also indicated that the total market value for e-book reader shipments would surpass US$3 billion in 2013, up from only US$244 million in 2008.
…
China, where the government is promoting e-reading as one of its major policies, is expected to become the second-largest single market for e-book readers in 2010.
Demise of the printed word? [Sept 6]
The desire to read books digitally on Apple iPads, Amazon Kindles or devices made in China such as Founder or Hanvon, is perhaps greater in China, where gadgets are adored, than any other market except the United States.
…
Many of the world’s publishers believe what happens in China could alter the axis of the global publishing industry and condemn what we now know as the paper book to history.
The move to digital transforms the business model of publishing and who gets what slice of the cake.
Publishers fear they could become marginalized or cut out of the process altogether as the new operators in the market – those providing the platforms – want to become content providers themselves and sign their own deals with authors.
…
One concern publishers have in China is piracy. Already on many street corners, forged copies of many titles of paper books are sold for a fraction of their normal retail price.
What scares publishers is that ripping off digital books is potentially easier and they don’t have to be sold on street stalls but could be sold in any part of the world in an instant.
A high-tech leap may put China front and center [Sept 6]
Lack of modern bookstores may make e-reading a public preference
John Makinson, chairman and chief executive of Penguin, a major international publisher, believes China could lead the world in the way people buy books.
…
“One of the key features of the Chinese market is that the physical book retailing infrastructure is not quite as well developed as in other markets,” he said. “There is an opportunity for digital publishing because the book retailing market is not as efficient as in some other markets. There are few book shops and there are problems in getting early delivery of books,” he said.
…
“To some extent, it could sort of leapfrog traditional publishing here, just as mobile telephony in some markets has leapfrogged fixed line phone networks,” he said. “You have a relatively conservative publishing and retail culture here while at the same time you have a very large community of book lovers engaged in online activity.”
…
He said according to industry figures e-books now make up around 10 percent of the total market in the United States and that portion was growing at 300 percent a year. “We have no idea when it might start flattening out. I think it is heading for at least 20 to 30 per cent of the overall market,” he said.
More people are reading on screens, not on paper [May 7]
The value of the digital publishing industry surpassed that of the traditional publishing industry last year for the first time in China, according to a blue book on the cultural industry released on Thursday.
The scale of the digital publishing industry hit an unprecedented high of 75 billion yuan ($11 billion) last year, up by 40 percent year on year, the blue book said.
“Online books, cell phone books and digital books have become popular among Chinese readers,” Zhang Xiaoming, deputy director of the Cultural Research Center under the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, said at a press conference.
The country’s cultural industry totaled about 800 billion yuan in 2009, according to an annual report on the industry’s development released by Social Sciences Academic Press on Thursday.
The report says most of China’s publishing houses have started producing of digital books.
About 75 percent of newspapers have launched online papers and 55 percent of them are providing SMS (short message service) news, the report says.
About 2.8 percent of Chinese adults have stopped reading anything on paper and have become loyal readers of digitally published products, the report said.
…
The number of cell phone users in China reached 780 million at the end of March, of which 155 million are mobile readers, according to figures from China’s Ministry of Industry and Information Technology.
China Mobile, the world’s biggest cell phone carrier in terms of subscribers, runs e-book stores and provides wireless access to online publications, such as e-books, comics and magazines.
The subscription fee for its online e-book store is up to five yuan per month, 40 percent of which will be shared with copyright owners, according to China Mobile.
…
“In recent years, the scale of the traditional publishing industry has remained at around 50 to 60 billion yuan a year, and it relies heavily on textbook publishing,” Gao Shusheng, an official with the publicity department of the Communist Party of China Central Committee, said in an earlier interview.
“Many publishing houses are facing a crisis and digital publishing might help them break the ice,” he said.
Yan Xiaohong, deputy director of General Administration of Press and Publication, also said mobile reading has shown strong vitality and huge market potential in China.
“I spent 15 yuan on mobile reading last year, and I’m planning to buy an electric book this month,” said Yang Jie, a 27-year-old Beijinger. Reading an electric book on the bus is “fashionable,” and three to five yuan for reading an electric book online is affordable, she said.
China Mobile platform puts digital publications at fingertips [May 6]
China Mobile on Wednesday launched an online platform that enables its subscribers to read and download digital publications through cell phones and e-book readers, as part of its effort to profit from the country’s emerging mobile reading market.
The world’s biggest cellphone carrier in terms of subscribers kicked off an e-book store similar to Apple’s iBook store, which gives users wireless access to a series of online publications such as e-books, comics and magazines.
“Reading habits have fundamentally changed,” said Gao Nianshu, general manager of China Mobile’s data department. He said the company hopes the new platform will attract over 200 million users in the near future.
…
Gao said China Mobile’s new e-book platform, which currently covers about 40 percent of the best selling books in the country, has attracted over 15 million users during four months of testing in eight areas.
…
But … although about 45 percent of Chinese mobile Internet users read books at least once a day by mobile phone, few of them are willing to pay for online content.
…
It was reported earlier this week that China Mobile plans to team up with Foxconn Electronics of Taiwan province to produce its own e-book readers.
Part II. New technologies for 2011
Color Comes to E Ink Screens [Nov 7]
However, the new color E Ink display, while an important technological breakthrough, is not as sharp and colorful as LCD. Unlike an LCD screen, the colors are muted, as if one were looking at a faded color photograph. In addition, E Ink cannot handle full-motion video. At best, it can show simple animations.
These are reasons Amazon, Sony and the other major e-reader makers are not yet embracing it. Amazon says it will offer color E Ink when it is ready; the company sees color as useful in cookbooks and children’s books, and it offers these books in color through its Kindle application for LCD devices. Sony is also taking a wait-and-see approach.
How E Ink’s Triton Color Displays Work, In E-Readers and Beyond [Nov 9]
E Ink developed the Triton screen in conjunction with a group of partners, including Epson, Texas Instruments, Marvell, and the semiconductor companies Maxim and Freescale, all of whom worked on the electronic components of the [previous black and white only] Pearl screen. In particular, Epson played a key role, providing the color filters’ controller chip.
Underneath, it’s still the same white, black and grayscale electrophoretic pigments; it’s only when filtered through the RGB overlay that the image appears in color. To reach for an historical analogy, it’s not totally dissimilar from film’s Technicolor process, which shot in black-and-white film strips through color filters, then reverse-processed.
Because the underlying technology is identical, Triton’s contrast, energy usage, viewing angle are all essentially the same as the Pearl. The image update or refresh rate for monochrome is the same (240 ms), but color animation can take up to about one full second.
Unlike a LCD display, though, pictures on the Triton don’t need to update the entire screen: a moving figure in the foreground might be refreshed while the background remains identical — just like traditional cel animation.
Epson and E Ink Announce State-of-the-Art Color EPD Controller [May 18]
Seiko Epson Corporation … and E Ink Corporation … announced a new jointly developed display controller IC. The S1D13524 is a high-performance EPD controller with a built-in color processor for E Ink’s VizplexTM-enabled electronic color paper displays.
…
Yingjian Liu, chairman of Hanvon Technology Co., Ltd, a leading eReader provider said, “Epson and E Ink’s color EPD controller is a revolutionary innovation in the eReader industry. Thanks to this breakthrough technology announcement, eReader lovers will now be able to enjoy reading colorful eNewspapers and eTextbooks. This new innovation will help expand the contents for eReaders, thereby helping to preserve the environment and changing the way in which people obtain information.” Hanvon is planning to launch its own colorful eReader at the end of the year.
The S1D13524 is the ideal choice for E Ink color EPD designs and design upgrades. Samples of the Epson S1D13524 will be available in June. Sample price is $24. Production quantities will be available in Dec 2010.
Epson to Provide Display Controller Platform that Sharply Improves e-Paper Product Performance [Oct 27]
– Platform to enable laser-quality images and high-speed refreshes –
Seiko Epson Corporation (“Epson”, TSE: 6724) today announced that it has developed a new display controller platform for electronic reading devices and other electronic paper products that provides laser-sharp image quality and rapid refreshes. The company will begin shipping the platform to e-paper-based product manufacturers in April 2011.
…
The display control platform will enable e-paper product manufacturers to speed up their time to market by allowing them to efficiently develop products with fast display refresh times and the ability to display images as sharp and clear as any produced by a laser printer. Notably, the platform will facilitate the development of products for business and education applications, which typically require higher image quality and faster displays.
Epson is the world’s no.1* supplier of controller ICs for e-paper displays, partnering with E Ink Holdings Inc. of Hsinchu, Taiwan, the world’s number 1 supplier of e-paper.
…
The display controller platform employs a newly developed e-paper display driving scheme that is unlike those used in current e-book readers. The new driving scheme capitalizes on high-speed image processing technology originally developed for Epson’s photo-quality printers to enable e-paper displays with resolutions of 300 dpi and higher to be refreshed at high speed, which is ideal for higher education, professional office and general business environments.
E-paper devices outfitted with the display controller platform and a high-resolution e-paper display will render intricate content, such as “kanji” characters, mathematical formulas and engineering drawings, as well as illustrations, photographs and other images that require smooth gradations, much more clearly than current e-paper displays. They will also be able to flip through the pages of an e-book much faster than existing e-readers. When combined with sensors, these devices will provide powerful handwriting recognition, a critical function for business applications. The sharp improvement in readability and usability are expected to fuel the popularity of e-paper products in Japan, China, and other regions where Chinese characters are used, as well as in business and education applications where huge amounts of data have to be processed.
E Ink Announces Next Generation Display Platform [July 1]
E Ink® Corporation, the leading developer and marketer of electronic paper display technology, today announced the Q2 release of its next generation display technology, Pearl. With Pearl, E Ink expands the capabilities of reflective displays, bringing electronic paper performance to the next level. With the whitest reflective displays in the industry, and a contrast ratio now approximately 50 percent greater than today’s products, text on Pearl “pops” from the page, enabling a reading experience most similar to reading text on printed paper.
…
The E Ink Pearl design builds on the current generation of Vizplex designs, which is used in millions of eReader devices today. Due to a unique and proven two pigment system that is extremely stable, the current E Ink products in the market today have demonstrated long life and high reliability, enabling a whole new class of consumer products.
Images and text become crisp on the screen as the contrast between the background and item of interest is increased. E Ink Pearl raises the bar for displays used in digital reading. This allows for eReaders to go from a contrast ratio typical of newspapers, to a higher contrast ratio typical of paperback books. The crisp text and detailed graphics also continue to remain pleasant to view when E Ink products are enjoyed outside. In addition, with 16 gray level depth, E Ink Pearl offers the sharpest rendering of images and allows product developers to display images with smooth tones and rich detail.
Part III. The Chinese market
E Ink to set up subsidiary in China to develop e-book hardware [Dec 16]
Small- to medium-size TFT-LCD panel and electrophoretic display (EPD) maker E Ink Holdings will invest US$6.61 million to set up a subsidiary in China to design and develop hardware for e-book readers for the local education market, according to the company.
… the company will not mass produce e-book readers. This investment in China is to provide an incentive to the textbook market to commence its transition to e-paper
China market: Hanvon to lower e-book reader prices by average of CNY500 a year, says report [Dec 7]
Hanvon Technology, the largest China-based vendor of e-book readers, has reached an initial economy-scale of over one million users in the China market and will keep reducing prices by an average of CNY500 (US$75) each year until it reaches production cost levels, according to a report by China-based Beijing News. … Hanvon will rely on sales of online content for profitability, the paper quoted Hanvon chairman Liu Ying-jian as saying. Hanvon will even offer free e-book readers, Liu indicated.
…
Hanvon has so far adopted EPD (electrophoretic display) panels supplied by Taiwan-based E Ink Holdings, and will cooperate with additional suppliers including Qualcomm MEMS Technologies and Fujitsu
Hanwang to maintain over 70% of China e-book reader market share in 2010 [Nov 24]
Hanwang Technology’s e-book reader shipments are expected to exceed one million units in 2010, an increase of 150% from about 400,000 units in 2009, and the vendor is expected to maintain an over 70% share of the e-book reader market in China for the year.
Hanwang is optimistic about the education market and expects significant growth in the future, noting that there are over 100 million elementary school students. Hanwang noted that flexible substrates will help to boost demand in the education market because they are more robust than glass substrates.
China market: Hanvon lowers e-book readers by 200-300 yuan on average [Nov 16]:
Hanvon Technology, currently the largest vendor of e-book readers in the China market, has lowered its retail prices by 200-300 yuan (US$30-45) on average, with the lowest price reaching 950 yuan, according to report by China-based Beijing Morning Post. The price war for e-book readers in the China market has kicked off and there are expected to be rounds of price-cut competition, the source cited China-based consulting company Analysys International as indicating.
…
In addition to Hanvon, fellow vendor MReader has cut the retail price for its S600 e-book reader to 999 yuan and another vendor Gorld has cut the price for its 500T to about 1,000 yuan.
Hanvon color e-book reader to hit the market in February 2011 [Nov 11]
Hanvon will start selling its new 9.7-inch color e-book reader featuring E Ink Holding’s latest color e-paper, Triton, in February 2011 with a selling price of 3,500 yuan (US$527.59) and is accepting pre-orders now.
…
Hanvon chairman Liu Ying-jian noted that thanks to E Ink’s cooperation, Hanvon was able to launch the world’s first color e-book reader with better-than-expected color performance. Hanvon will launch a Wi-Fi version with a selling price of 3,500 yuan, and latter a 3G version at a price of 200-300 yuan more.
In addition to competing with iPad, the 9.7-inch color e-book reader is also eyeing the commercial market as the product allows users to read and modify PowerPoint files, reducing the usage of actual paper and is easy to carry around, Liu added.
E Ink Announces Color ePaper [Nov 10]
“Color ePaper will enable richer content in eBooks, as well as enabling a broader array of other reading devices, for content such as magazines, newspapers, and educational materials,” according to Paul Semenza, Senior Vice President, DisplaySearch. “We foresee market demand for ePaper displays in these applications reaching $5 billion by 2016.”
…
For image-rich information applications showing charts, graphs, maps, photos, comics and advertising, color displays made with Triton Imaging Film enable ultra-low power and high mobility devices with a paper-like experience. In addition to 16 levels of grayscale, Triton is capable of displaying thousands of colors. And just like E Ink’s grayscale ePaper products, Triton’s crisp text and detailed color graphics are fully viewable in direct sunlight.
INTERVIEW: Aiming for No. 1 in e-reader sector [June 2]
Taipei Times: Hanvon Technology Co (漢王科技) enjoys a strong presence in the Chinese e-reader market and you aim to become the world’s top brand. How do you plan to do that and what is your timeline?
Liu Yingjian (劉迎建): We are currently the world’s No. 2 e-reader brand [after Amazon], and we will become No. 1 next year, or in 2012 at the latest. China has the biggest e-reader market. With our huge scale in shipments, we have advantages in lower costs and product functionality with our proprietary Mandarin-character recognition software.
Our goal was to ship 500,000 e-readers in China last year, but we sold only 266,000 units, as our upstream suppliers weren’t able to supply the volumes we requested. In the first quarter, we shipped 180,000 e-readers, and the total volume for the year will definitely surpass 1 million.
…
TT: The iPad is now taking the world by storm and Acer Inc (宏碁) last week announced that it would join hands with China’s Founder Group (北大方正集團) to move into China’s PC and e-reader market. How do you view the competition?
Liu: I regard [Apple co-founder] Steve Jobs as a hero and Apple itself is an outstanding company. Tablet PCs have been in the market for so long, but just didn’t take off. The launch of the iPad revived consumers’ interest. Apple’s business model, applications, stylish gadgets and the enjoyment these devices bring to consumers are amazing.
But this doesn’t mean that Apple products will also receive overwhelming response in China. The cultural essence is the part Western firms fail to offer. Hanvon has created computerized Mandarin-character handwriting recognition solutions, which allow the elderly and kids to enjoy technology by just scribbling on the panels.
[Liu developed the world’s first computerized Mandarin-character handwriting recognition technology in 1985, then founded Hanvon in 1998 and the company became the first Chinese IT firm to license technology to Microsoft Corp the same year.]
The market in China is huge and there won’t be only one player. We have over 40 e-reader brands and the competition helps us stay competitive. What Acer lacks in digital content is complemented by Founder’s resources.
TT: The market is now split into two segments: e-readers and tablet devices. Some say tablets will cannibalize the e-reader segment. What is your take on this, especially since Hanvon just debuted its first tablet — the TouchPad — late last month?
Liu: These two products share a similarity: They are both tablet devices, but use different panels. The major difference is that an e-reader is more for stationary use, such as flipping through newspapers and magazines, and uses less battery power. Tablets consume more power, but have color screens with more PC-like features. In the future, e-paper displays will be in color, while TFT panels used in tablets will consume less battery power. Both could merge into a single device over the next three years.
…
TT: How would you define your relationship with Taiwanese manufacturers?
Liu: We realized that when it comes product design, Taiwanese manufacturers are the cream of the crop. Hanvon isn’t strong in manufacturing and if we want to churn out products that have world-class quality, then we need to work with world-class companies. I started to pay aggressive visits to Taiwanese manufacturers in the second half of last year, looking for suitable partners. There are a slew of sleek products that we will introduce later this year and they are designed by Taiwanese firms. Also, we are currently talking to Book11.com for e-content and plan to bring in our e-reader and TouchPad to Taiwan in the second half.
China Hanvon Technology, the world’s second-largest e-reader manufacturers as well as the world’s leading technology supplier of handwriting recognition, optical character recognition and biometrics identification sets up an overseas marketing platform in Taiwan today to expand overseas markets. Hanvon also announces that all its four major product lines Ebook readers (including the latest six-inch touch-screen Ebook N620 with handwriting recognition and WiFi launched simultaneously in mainland China), Tablet PCs, Graphic Tablets and Face Recognitions Products will be available in Taiwan. Hanvon Technology will also cooperate with the digital publishers in Taiwan on the establishment a cross-strait publishing cooperation platform to support the distribution of Taiwan’s Traditional Chinese publication in mainland China and further expand the market of Chinese publication. Attaching importance to Taiwan market, Hanvon Technology today invites dozens of partners in Taiwan such as technology companies, distributors and digital publishers to attend the news conference. Hanvon Technology hopes the establishment of overseas marketing platform in Taiwan is an opportunity to Chinese digital publishers across the strait to collaborate on spreading Chinese culture and starting a new era of Chinese reading!
Hanvon to launch Taiwan subsidiary [Sept 8]
… it will have a workforce of 70 to 80 carrying out research and development, as well as sales, said Chen Shaoqiang (陳少強), president of Hanvon’s resources management division.
The commencement of local operations will also include the debut of its online bookstore, which will allow owners of Hanvon e-readers to download books onto their devices
…
To meet shipment goals, Hanvon has outsourced production to Hon Hai Precision Industry Co (鴻海精密), Pegatron Corp (和碩), Inventec Corp (英業達) and Clevo Co (藍天電腦).
Part IV. Hanvon’s Microsoft and Intel cooperation
[FPD 2010] Hanvon’s Triton Powered Color e-Reader “WISEreader” hands-on [Nov 12]
Available in Pre-order in China, Hanvon’s latest e-Reader is according to the company the world first Color e-book reader. Name “WISEreader” this new e-Reader comes with a 9.68” Screen from E INK Triton technology, display 4096 colors, comes with Hanvon Digital Touch screen technology, runs on Windows CE 6.0 a Freescale CPU, has 2GB of RAM and support MicroSD Cards up to 32GB.
Other spec includes a 2350mAh Li-Ion Battery, Wi-Fi B/G as well as several WAN Options including TD, EVDO and WCDMA.
Finally the WISEreader support TXT Files as well as HTML, HTXT, PDF, CEB, DOC, XLS, PPT, EPUB, HEB, HEC, JPG, BMP, TIF, GIF, MP3, WAV and WMA.
We had some quality time with this little marvel and honestly the screen is quite good and the overall reader was responsive. With a nice 9.68 screen capable to rotate on landscape mode, the WISEreader is a pretty descent device. Capable to support some basic little games, it make us which to be in China just right now to grab one.
http://www.hanvon.com/en/products/ebook/index.html
6 inches
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5 inches
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8 inches
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| WinCE:· File Formats: – Text: TXT, HTXT, HTML, PDF, EPUB, DOC, XLS – Image: JPG, TIF, BMP, PNG, GIF – DRM: Adobe content management 4· Digital Audio Formats: WAV, WMA, MP3 |
WinCE 5.0:· Supported Digital Audio Standards: WAV, MP3· Reader: – TEXT: TXT, HTXT, HTML, PDF, EPUB, CHM, Mobi/FB2/(not available yet) – Image: JPG, TIF, BMP, PNG, GIF · Office: Microsoft® Word, EXCEL, PPT (not available yet) |
Linux:
· File Formats:
– Text: TXT, HTXT, HTML, PDF, EPUB
– Image: JPG, TIF, BMP, PNG, GIF,CHM
– DRM: Adobe content management 4
· Digital Audio Formats: WMA, MP3
Hanvon Ebook Readers [March]
… if you want handwriting recongnition incorporated into a reading device Hanvon has to be first choice. This is a key part of their work for over two decades, and something at which they do excel. …
Hanvon WiSEreader N618 at Microsoft booth on COMPUTEX Taipei 2010 [June 6]
Microsoft invites Hanvon to take participate in Microsoft booth in COMPUTEX Taipei (#L108). On 1st of June, Microsoft Corporate Vice President, OEM, Mr. Steven Guggenheimer introduces Hanvon to Microsoft media that Hanvon is a very important partner of Microsoft Window Embedded [because of Windows CE, see above], and that Hanvon comes from Beijing, which is a very magnificent media exposure for Hanvon brand.
Hanvon Invites Taiwan Peers to Jointly Enter Global E-book Reader Market [June 2]
Hanvon today unveiled an array of new products at the Computex Taipei 2010, including Touchpad B10 (tablet PC), WISEreader N618 (e-book reader), and Art Master Ⅲ(graphics tablet).
…
- TouchPad B10
Hanvon, Microsoft, and Intel jointly launched TouchPad B10 for business people. Also called the “iPad Killer” by the market, TouchPad has a trendy look and various practical features. With a weight around 990g and thickness of only 18mm, the stylish and light-weighted Touchpad is easy to carry. In addition, TouchPad supports VGA resolution of 1024×600 (16:9) and is equipped with a 2GB DDR2 memory and 250GB hard drive and therefore it makes video and audio files easy to read and write. With Windows7 pre-installed operating system, 2 USB ports, audio in/out, mini HDMI, TouchPad is a perfect trendy and handy product for consumers to use.
- WISEreader N618
WISEreader N618 is Hanvon’s first ebook reader equipped with built-in WiFi, which allows users to read ebooks via wireless web. It is a business type e-Book reader, equipped with a 6-inch E-Ink large screen and document editing/management software which supports multi-format files. Using Hanvon’s latest handwriting recognition technology and electromagnetic plate technology, WISEreader N618 is a more convenient tool compared to traditional notebooks for users as they can enjoy the dual touch screen features through gesture and handwriting recognition. WISEreader N618 is therefore a great companion for business and travel.
Hanvon B10 Win7 tablet goes on sale, gets video unboxing [Aug 25]
Hanvon Touchpad B10 tablet computer at CES China [July 12]
… new Touchpad B10 [linking to Hanvon’s product page] tablet computer. The 9.96 x 6.61 x 0.70 inch, 1.98 pound device is powered by a 1.3GHz ULV 743 Celeron processor and GMA X4500 display chip from Intel on a GS45 chipset with 2GB DDR2 memory and a 250GB hard disk drive.
Intel Shares Vision for the Future [April 13]
Also, Perlmutter disclosed that Intel is working with PC manufacturers Tongfang* and Hanvon* to introduce the new convertible classmate PC design that combines aesthetics with ruggedness, full PC functionality with enhanced e-reading capabilities and improved performance with energy efficiency. The flexible design of the new convertible classmate PC works and moves the way students do. The tablet touch screen form factor also adds additional functionality for students. Development of these new features was based on extensive ethnographic research with students and teachers.
Rugged Convertible Classmate PC Design Moves the Way Kids Do [April 26]
Intel Corporation today unveiled the most flexible and durable Intel-powered convertible classmate PC reference design yet.
PRESS KIT – The Intel-powered classmate PC: Photos
The new convertible classmate PC design converts instantly from a clamshell to a tablet mode with a touch screen, featuring a built-in camera that will swivel for 180 degrees while retaining its kids-friendly design. Features of the platform are designed for more mobility, flexibly and collaboration in students’ learning. The convertible design will coexist with the Intel-powered clamshell classmate PC for varying education needs in the world.
Pegatron lands orders for tablet PCs from China-based Hanvon [12 Nov]:
Hanvon has extended its own-brand business operation from e-book readers to tablet PCs and has launched a few business-use models including Touchpad B10 and B20 in the China market, the sources indicated.
Hanvon’s executives earlier came to Taiwan to seek ODM partners for its tablet PCs, with First International Computer, Clevo, Quanta Computer and Wistron regarded as candidates, the sources pointed out. Hanvon originally selected Clevo, but Clevo gave up the opportunity because Hanvon asked for too low prices, the sources indicated. Finally, Pegatron won by quoting the lowest, the sources noted.
China market: Hanvon to launch TouchPad B10 tablet PC in January [Dec 17]
China-based Hanvon Technology will begin to market its first Windows 7-based tablet PC, the TouchPad B10, in the China market in January 2011. Hanvon is currently outsourcing production of the TouchPad 10, which is powered by an Intel N455 processor, to Taiwan-based First International Computer (FIC).
FIC began shipping the TouchPad B10 in December and volume shipments will be maintained at 2,000-4,000 units a month initially. However, total monthly shipments are likely to reach 10,000-15,000 units when Hanvon launches Android-based products in the second quarter of 2011, according to industry sources.
More information:
Undermining E-Ink and single-purpose E-readers [Aug 23 – Nov 10]: a comprehensive report about the massive FUD generated by competitive forces a few months back. Has been successfully beaten back.
This Ink Is for Reading [July 1]: all you need to know about E-Ink Holdings (that times called Prime View International)
somewhat older information of the similar kind:
By the Book [Jan 8]
Taiwan firm spreads out e-paper magic [Jan 2]
Prime View and E-Book Readers: A New Page in Reading History [July 21, 2009]
