Sexy hybrid LCD/e-paper display seen in the wild

There's been some buzz this week around Pixel Qi's 3qi display technology, which integrates e-paper attributes with LCD to create a versatile and potentially very energy-efficient screen. The idea is that with a flip of a button you can go from a traditional high-resolution color LCD experience to a low-power black and white mode to an even more energy-efficient e-paper mode that allows you to easily view text in bright sunlight.

This week the technology was demonstrated at Computex in Taiwan, and it seems very impressive. If these types of displays can be produced cost-efficiently, they may revolutionize the notebook and e-reader market. We're probably at least a year away from seeing devices with Pixel Qi's 3qi displays, but at least the company has some promising prototypes to show off and John Ryan, Pixel Qi's COO and vice president of sales of marketing, claims the technology is more mature than you'd think.

Check out the video and feel free to comment on how revolutionary you think this is--or isn't.

Additional reading: PixelQi puts three displays in one

(Source: Techvideoblog.com via Engadget)

[randallwizard]

I don't think it's revolutionary, I think it's long overdue. The Kindle to me (someone who's poor) seems like a ridiculous buy - it's expensive and doesn't offer very much. However, I hate reading off a normal computer screen. This seems like it would basically merge netbooks and kindles, making the kindle pretty obsolete (at least in my eyes).

I'd love to get a Kindle DX... if it's half of the current price. Amazon can sell at that ridiculous price only because there is very few competition. For that price, wouldn't it make more sense to buy a PS3? It'd bet that it costs more to make a PS3 than a Kindle. I just hope the technology matures and price comes down soon!

[AListener]

randalwizard and also author of 2nd comment here,

The word 'ridiculous' is used for the Kindle pricing, but it's ignored that the only available competitor in that size is the iRex Iliad, which costs about $860 and which has no web browser.

Smaller e-books are becoming available, but they don't have search capabilities; highlighting and note-adding; in-line dictionaries which show definitions for word on which the cursor happens to be.
Nor do they have 24/7 *free* wireless along with a web browser, using the Sprint EV-DO cell phone network.

[AListener]

Also, there's no word yet on how much a tablet form using the Pixel QI would cost, but the screen display unit is claimed to cost "well under $200" while the Kindle's E-Ink screen display is about $60.

So it won't be cheap. It WILL have a color capability, so I hope they really are able to get this into devices by first part or first half of 2010. It would be available to Jeff Bezos also.

- Andrys
http://kindleworld.blogspot.com