Fujitsu Makes Breakthrough with Color e-Paper
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Credit: Fujitsu
Many e-reader fans have been waiting for e-paper companies to perfect their color technology, paving the way for color e-papers in the future. Amazon and Nook are both rumored to be working on color screen e-readers. It is not clear when those devices will be released. Fujitsu is another company that intends to perfect its color e-paper technology to continue offering thin and powerful e-readers to consumers. Fujitsu is not new to this game, but the quality of its last generation e-paper technology left a lot to be desired. The company claims to have made a breakthrough by reaching contrast ratio of 7:1 and faster image transitions.
Fujitsu has improved contrast ratio to 7:1 (a threefold improvement compared to Fujitsu’s previous version), and has made the image re-write speed twice as fast at 0.7 seconds compared to Fujitsu’s previous color e-paper, thus enabling smooth image transitions and color display quality that is at the highest levels available for color e-paper.
FLEPia was touted as one of the first color screen e-readers on the market. But it was not met with too much excitement by consumers. The quality was just not there. Fujitsu claims its new technology addresses some of those short-comings, while keeping the advantages that e-paper holds over LCD screens.
The iPad has a color display and is quite powerful. But it is very tough to use on sunny days. It also puts more strain on eyes in comparison to a device such as Kindle. Amazon is expected to make another push in the e-reader market with a color-screen, video-capable e-reader. It remains to be seen whether Amazon is ready to stick by e-paper in the long haul. Besides, can Amazon contain costs and stay competitive with Apple and other tablet makers? We will have to wait and see.
