BPN 1562 Samsung acquires Liquavista

This is great news for the e-book and iPad world. Technology analogue to the e-Ink display technology will now be further developed and implemented by Samsung but with colour and video. Liquavista is interesting to display producers for their LCD processes can handle 90 percent of the Liquavista production process; it will make the production process into a LCD 2.0 exercise. This will make the display cheaper than the e-Ink display at its start.
I gues that we will see Liquavista displays implemented by next year. Guess that the Samsung Galaxy will be the first implementation. It will be a winner superceding the iPad.

This is the press release of this morning:

Eindhoven (The Netherlands) - 20 January 2011: Today, Liquavista BV., announced that it has been acquired by Samsung Electronics in a buyout of all shares from the past shareholders. Under the terms of this acquisition, Liquavista will be a fully owned affiliate of Samsung Electronics.
“We are thrilled by this event” said Johan Feenstra, Liquavista’s Founder and newly appointed CEO of Liquavista, “the outright acquisition of Liquavista by the largest electronics company in the world is the fulfilment of a strategy dating back to the original spin-out and, confirmation of the disruptive potential that our technology will have in the display market.”
The acquisition has also resulted in a number of changes in Liquavista’s management team. Johan Feenstra has succeeded Guy Demuynck as the company’s CEO .

“In the future, consumers will need products that not only support full color and video but offer readability in all lighting conditions and gives them ultimate freedom and portability.” Johan Feenstra added, “Being part of Samsung, we can all be sure that Electrowetting Display Technology will find its way to the market in the fastest possible time.”

BPN 1562

BPN 1416 Colour screen and video on ereader

It is coming, the colour screen and video on an ereader. So far ereader have black/white screens and are slow in internet representation. The Eindhoven based company Liquavista, a Philips Research spin-off, is now showing a colour screen and video at CES in Las Vegas thanks to the technology of electrowetting.

Electrowetting looks like the e-Ink technology. They both work without backlightning and have low energy consumption. E-Ink technology is fully implemented now for ereaders in the meantime. Electrowetting will change the reader from reading to entertaining and yield a complete new range of interactive colour devices for consumers. Now ereaders based on the principle of e-Ink technology are used as text iPods in black and white and audio iPods. Devices based on electrowetting will become content devices, offering ebooks and epapers in colour, audio, but also high-fidelity video as well as internet. The greatest advantage will be the low energy consumption.

Electrowetting is now shown as a laboratory development, which will be in operation by the end of the year or the beginning of next year. The production is rather simple as 90 percent of the existing LCD production equipment and processes are being used.

Plastic Logic Unveils QUE E-book Reader. At CES the digital paper manufacturer Plastic Logic on Thursday introduced its QUE e-book reader device, which features a 10.7-inch touch-screen display, is about one-third of an inch thick, and will sell for $649 (4GB + Wi-Fi) and $799 (8GB + Wi-Fi + AT&T 3G). Pre-orders for the device are now available from the QUE Store and will ship in mid-April. Later this year, the QUE will also go on sale at Barnes & Noble stores nationwide, and from the bookseller's website.

Samsung Ebook Readers with Stylus Pen. On Thursday at CES Samsung debuted its first two e-book reader devices, the $399 E6, which features a six-inch screen, and the $699 E10, which sports a ten-inch screen. Both devices feature non-back-lit displays, which come with a built-in electromagnetic resonance stylus pen that can be used to write annotations or create to-do lists directly on the device's screen. The devices, set to ship in early 2010, will also feature Wi-Fi capability and Bluetooth, which allows sharing of certain content with other devices.

Plastic Logic and Samsung are creating a new top of the range. Kindle DX and iRex Digital Reader 1000 series were already leading the pack, but they will now get company of Plastic Logic and Samsung. They will be sitting together uneasily as the prices are same range and a choice of preference will made on facilities and services such as news online and telephone services.

While this ‘traditional’ fight will go on in the market place for the year to come, Electrowetting will get introduced by the beginning of next year with colourful devices and have competition awaiting from Apple, from new LCD manufacturers like Pixel Qi and to a less extent from HP, Asus and others. And these new players will not just be in the market for flogging books and newspapers. They will do text, audio and video on the content container. And a complete new game with ebooks, epapers, emagazines, music and video will start.

Blog Posting Number: 1416

Tags: ebook, ereader

BPN 1055 First Dutch university on eBook

As the first Dutch university the Open University offers its course material on eBook readers. Students in the management Studies department, taking HRM courses, receive an eBook reader for free with a substantial part of the course material. The offers fit in the OU’s strive after time- and place independent studying facilities.

With the eBook project the OU looks for sensible solutions using new methods, tools and technologies. The eBook reader can contain a complete cupboard with books and reads as well as a printed book. The OU has chosen after a trial (see photograph) for the Hanlin V3 for its stability and user friendliness. The battery life is 8.000 page flips long. And interesting is the facility on which mp3 files can be played. With the experience of using the eBook readers the university is able to continue its policy to use, extend and optimise e-material. Also course material as mp3 file is seriously researched. It can save time, while also visually impaired students can participate.

The OU is the first university to offer its material digitally for eBook readers, as the OU develops most of its content itself and digitally. It converts also the content with text-to-speech material, so that the texts can be read and listened to. Other universities are more dependent on publishers, who are more cautious and wait for a standard to crystallise.

It looks like eBooks and eReaders are slowly making inroads, despite a recent marketing survey, basically telling that only 2 per cent of 600 respondents will buy an eReader and 16 per cent might do so. But eReaders and especially the digital paper ones, are products of national pride, as in The Netherlands three companies, all Philips spin-offs, are actively developing digital paper eBook readers. iRex Technologies has brought the second version of the iLiad wireless eReader. Polymer Vision is still developing the mobile phone Readius, while Liquavista has just taken the colour digital paper, based on the technical principle of electrowetting from the drawing board in Eindhoven (The Netherlands) to start industrial production in China. In terms of sales The Netherlands is starting up. Last year the book chain Selexyz started to sell the iLiad and has sold 273 units till March 2008, while 50 Dutch language eBooks were available. A pilot was held at a secondary school. This year so far the Dutch quality newspaper NRC Handelsblad started its ePaper edition and sold in two weeks more than 500 iLiads. The Dutch language eBooks have doubled since last year to 100 titles, while 279 Dutch language eBooks are in the public domain. Also the libraries subscribers can now borrow eBooks. The consultancy PWC expects this year a turn over of 0,5 mln euro.

Blog Posting Number: 1055

Tags: eBook, eReadereBook, eReader, digital paper, ePaper

BPN 1052 Electrowetting from lab to production in 2008

Liquavista BV, a display manufacturing company based in Eindhoven, the Netherlands has secured 8 mln. euro to start its production of ColorMatch™-based products this year. Displays produced on the principle of electrowetting will move now from the lab into industrial production.

In the past years digital paper has changed displays drastically. The readability and power management have offered new opportunities. Liquavista is producing displays on the principle of electrowetting. The principle of electrowetting works differently from digital paper. In this digital paper display the film contains plastic spheres, which is the ink and according to the charge the symbols and grey scale changes. Electrowetting works on the principle of a film which contains water and oil and changes the symbols and colour scales according to the electronic charge. But the advantage of electrowetting is that the displays have been developed to use conventional LCD substrates. In fact, more than 90% of the manufacturing cycle use standard LCD manufacturing equipment and processes. A proprietary low cost, scalable fill process, performed at the bipane level, and patented by Liquavista, improves further on the standard LCD manufacturing cycle. Electrowetting displays use conventional modularisation, integration and drive techniques.

The major advantage is the colour scales and is video capable. (Digital paper is so far black/white and not capable of video). Besides it Liquavista displays are said to have very low power consumption in static and video modes and is bright in all viewing conditions, preserving colour saturation and contrast. It has unlimited view angles, without colour distortion and is capable of high resolution. The technology is robust (no water will spill on clothing).

The technology is in fact a step further than digital paper. It has a high readability, clear viewing in all lighting conditions, from a dimly lit office environment to the bright light of a sunny day and uses power management. But the colour scales and video capability will enable new displays and applications, ranging from watches, mobile phones and digital cameras to notebook computers as well as MP3 and DVD players and automotive applications.
In fact electrowetting has the potential to change to transform the whole display industry. But the technology is also interesting for the users. It is tailor-made for mobile multimedia devices, where users really care about long battery life and daylight viewability. People will use premium services on mobile devices much more if they are not concerned about running the battery down, so providers of software, services and networks will also win.

As the technology is largely based on standard LCD fabrication processes, the company can follow a very rapid path to achieve volume production. The company is currently installing its first production unit with an LCD partner in China to complement its process development facility in Eindhoven.

Liquavista was founded in 2006 by a team which originates from Philip Research Labs in Eindhoven. The spin-off company is now financially backed by Philips, New Venture Partners, GIMV and Amadeus. Early applications, which enable bright vibrant colours in simple displays, are expected to enter the market in 2008.

Blog Posting Number: 1052

Tags: digital paper, electrowetting