scott wrote:
>>> I wonder what people were saying about LCD 20 years ago...
>>
>> But LCD hasn't changed how a screen is used, it's just made it a bit 
>> more efficient and a bit smaller (and, arguably, a bit crapper, 
>> certainly in the low end of the TV market).  E-paper requires a whole 
>> new product
> 
> You mean like how LCD has popped up in cars, phones, portable navigation 
> devices and games consoles etc - none of which had any sort of graphic 
> display before LCD.

Yersss... true, although I still don't think there has been a 
fundamental shift in the way pre-existing devices are used. With phones, 
the screen technology (as well as the computing and battery technology) 
has just enabled several common portable devices to be integrated into 
one small one, without changing how the different functions are used. 
Navigation devices would also still be small and indispensable without a 
screen. Most people don't use the screen with them anyway, the voices 
tell them when to turn up wrong-way streets or drive 60 ton lorries down 
unmade country roads perfectly efficiently ;-)

>> and a whole new set of habits from the consumer. This will take a 
>> little longer. I don't expect to see e-paper widely used anytime soon, 
>> and only maybe within my lifetime.
> 
> As I already said, ePaper is already used in supermarkets, it will only 
> be a matter of years (not decades) before it becomes more cost-efficient 
> than a lot of existing paper-and-ink based things.

We might have to curb society's urge to throw everything in the skip 
first, but that's another matter of course.

> Sure, it's not going to replace a real book or a newspaper for a long 
> time (perhaps never), but there are plenty of other markets that ePaper 
> will take over relatively soon.

Yes, I guess I was only really considering the issue of it replacing 
actual paper.

> Another example is the odometer in cars - the OEMs are already asking 
> for a zero-power display for this so that it is always visible.  Expect 
> to see ePaper based odometers within 10 years in cars, and cars have one 
> of the longest product development cycles.

Fine, but that's really just a gimmick, isn't it? Would it really be 
cheaper, more reliable and the rest than a small mechanical dial? Maybe 
it would, I'm only being a luddite cynic here... :)

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