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Hanvon to debut color E-ink e-reader on Tuesday

I guess this means Hanvon won’t be doing a Mirasol based ereader after all.  The NY Times have the story:

But on Tuesday at the FPD International 2010 trade show in Tokyo, a Chinese company will announce that it will be the first to sell a color display using technology from E Ink, whose black-and-white displays are used in 90 percent of the world’s ereaders, including the Amazon Kindle, Sony Readers and the Nook from Barnes & Noble.

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.

Hanvon’s first product using a 9.68-inch color touch screen will be available this March in China, starting at about $440. The price is less than an iPad in China, which sells for about $590. It will be positioned as a business product, with Wi-Fi and 3G wireless connectivity.

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Alexander Inglis November 7, 2010 um 11:08 pm

"Hanvon’s first product using a 9.68-inch color touch screen will be available this March in China, starting at about $440."

Given the Amazon DX 9.7″ is $389, including wifi and 3G, even without video and with "muted" colours, a colour DX for under $400 could have legs. After all — you’d get all the benefits of e-ink AND a touch screen AND connectivity AND colour AND long battery life. By all means go for a tablet to get the same as above — but video, more vibrant colour and 10 hrs vs 3 wk plus a real computer … starting at around $650.

So, there could be a market. Magazine and newspapers and photography books and art books all work handsomely with static images. So do business documents, research papers and student stuff that cries out for annotations and lower end pricing.

But where would that put the current b&w DX?


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