4 ms·

I don't believe the material cost is even $50. It is niche and not as demanded as tablets. It is such a shame these things are not mainstream because of the pri

I don't believe the material cost is even $50. It is niche and not as demanded as tablets. It is such a shame these things are not mainstream because of the price.

azinman2 5y ago
eInk displays aren’t cheap, then add in the pencil layer, cpu, etc
- system2 5y ago
  Yes, but it is not $500 expensive. LCD wasn't cheap but got 10 times cheaper in 15 years. eInk is around more than that yet still super expensive.
  - azinman2 5y ago
    LCDs have massive scales of economy and endless investment into making their manufacturing cheap. I’d be surprised if eInk screens are even 1% of the quantity of LED/OLED/LCD screens out there. eInk may also be fundamentally harder to manufacture due do how it works (I’m not sure). You also seem to be making the mistake that products should be priced according to their raw manufacturing costs. Not only is that ignoring engineering, marketing, legal, licensing and other costs, it’s also ignoring profit and trying to recoup investment on an initial product which itself is risky without knowing how well it will sell.
    - robinsoh 5y ago
      > I’d be surprised if eInk screens are even 1% of the quantity of LED/OLED/LCD screens out there. eInk may also be fundamentally harder to manufacture due do how it works (I’m not sure). You are correct. 2021 alone would have sold well over a billion smartphones each with a display, OLED or LCD. 2021 was a banner year for ebook readers and yet I'd doubt they even reached 10 million units worldwide. Electrophoretics just doesn't get investment because plainly speaking, the physics limits what it can do, and so nobody wants to invest big money into it. You'll see startups come and go, picking up maybe a 100 mil here and there and then burning out. That's even true across other display tech. Liquavista died. Qualcomm mirasol died. You want improvement, somebody has to risk big money.

I don't believe the material cost is even $50. It is niche and not as demanded as tablets. It is such a shame these things are not mainstream because of the price.

azinman2 5y ago

eInk displays aren’t cheap, then add in the pencil layer, cpu, etc

system2 5y ago
Yes, but it is not $500 expensive. LCD wasn't cheap but got 10 times cheaper in 15 years. eInk is around more than that yet still super expensive.
- azinman2 5y ago
  LCDs have massive scales of economy and endless investment into making their manufacturing cheap. I’d be surprised if eInk screens are even 1% of the quantity of LED/OLED/LCD screens out there. eInk may also be fundamentally harder to manufacture due do how it works (I’m not sure). You also seem to be making the mistake that products should be priced according to their raw manufacturing costs. Not only is that ignoring engineering, marketing, legal, licensing and other costs, it’s also ignoring profit and trying to recoup investment on an initial product which itself is risky without knowing how well it will sell.
  - robinsoh 5y ago
    > I’d be surprised if eInk screens are even 1% of the quantity of LED/OLED/LCD screens out there. eInk may also be fundamentally harder to manufacture due do how it works (I’m not sure). You are correct. 2021 alone would have sold well over a billion smartphones each with a display, OLED or LCD. 2021 was a banner year for ebook readers and yet I'd doubt they even reached 10 million units worldwide. Electrophoretics just doesn't get investment because plainly speaking, the physics limits what it can do, and so nobody wants to invest big money into it. You'll see startups come and go, picking up maybe a 100 mil here and there and then burning out. That's even true across other display tech. Liquavista died. Qualcomm mirasol died. You want improvement, somebody has to risk big money.