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E-Book Manufacturers Slowly Making the Move to Color

by Warren Riddle on June 15, 2009 at 11:01 AM

The race for color e-book readers is on, but U.S. consumers hoping to get their hands a technicolor tech-tome may still have to wait. Fujitsu only offers its color Flepia e-book in Japan and, according to Wired, everyone else is (at least) six months away.

Color display prototypes have been hindered by a grab-bag of technical problems, like slow refresh rates, inadequate screen size, poor clarity, and problems with brightness, to name a few. Wired quoted Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos, who said that the Kindle, Amazon's popular e-reader, is "multiple years away" from a color screen.

Asad Hussain, vice president of Kent Displays, which developed Flepia's display, told Wired that he sees the slow move to color screens as a product of manufacturers not wanting to upset the status quo. Hussain claims that the momentum of black-and-white displays are keeping companies from making the shift to color. Of course, there is one company rumored to be working on an e-reader that doesn't abide to market trends. Surprise! It's Apple.

Fueled by reports of the company ordering 10-inch touch screens and huge microchips, some insiders believe that Apple may be working on a color e-reader. Apple has been hiring microchip designers, and we think an Apple reader would be a perfect fit for the company's new deal with Marvel in offering "In-Motion" comics.

While some may believe paper books will never lose their appeal, lack of paper waste, wide variety of uses that come with a networked device, and now the promise of full-color, high-resolution displays (complete with bonus features like author interviews) could soon make electronic readers enticing to even the staunchest book nerds. [From: Wired.com]

Tags: ebook, flepia, kindle

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