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It's wild how in 2022 there's nothing consumers can do to stop this "price gouging" - I guess it's a free market and it's a niche so they have little competitio

It's wild how in 2022 there's nothing consumers can do to stop this "price gouging" - I guess it's a free market and it's a niche so they have little competition and kinda a monopoly? I don't understand the legal aspect of this stuff, but if the EU bureaucrats were able to impose USB-C standard instead of custom-charging-ports, surely they could do something about this too? Am I totally wrong? Seriously curious.... One more thought: colored rollable e-ink can have so many good uses, from being used in education to cut back on paper-books to displaying advertising and more utilitarian uses in our every-day life. gatekeeping this tech is absurd to me.

radu_floricica 5y ago
Why do you think this is price gouging and not just expensive to make? Plenty of things cost a heap of money even after years of development - I'm pretty sure you can buy a flying car if you have a billion lying around.
spiderice 5y ago
> cut back on paper-books I read an article posted here on HN about how using an iPad to cut back on paper basically never becomes worth it (from an environmental perspective). If you already have an iPad, sure, use it for not taking and it will be better than using paper. But don't go buy an iPad specifically to save on paper, because that will make the problem worse. I wonder how much of that same principle applies to e-ink displays. They obviously use a lot less power, so maybe it would be worth it. I'm really not sure. edit: did a quick Google search. I believe this was the article: https://slate.com/technology/2011/09/paper-versus-the-ipad-is-taking-notes-on-a-tablet-computer-or-a-notepad-more-environmentally-responsible.html https://slate.com/technology/2011/09/paper-versus-the-ipad-i...
deleted 5y ago
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stevehawk 5y ago
what price gouging are we talking about?
- orliesaurus 5y ago
  that's why I put it into quotes - I can't think of a better word for it
orliesaurus 5y ago
I put "price gouging" into quotes - as a non-native, I can't think of a better word for it
goodpoint 5y ago
> kinda a monopoly "thanks" to patents is 100% a monopoly. But maybe there is hope https://blog.the-ebook-reader.com/2015/03/02/german-court-finds-e-ink-patent-invalid-files-in-favor-of-trekstor/ https://blog.the-ebook-reader.com/2015/03/02/german-court-fi...
eigenvalue 5y ago
If you didn't have billions of people around the world buying them, the technology in your typical smartphone would cost many many thousands of dollars. Big markets with big demand can drive down cost curves almost unimaginably. It starts making sense to hire smart people to look at every aspect of how the thing works and is made, and to invest huge amounts of capital into equipment that can only be justified when the number of units is in the tens of millions. Something as niche as oversized passive e-ink screens will never attract that capital or expertise, since it could never recoup those costs. Eventually someone will either improve the technology enough for it to have a large end market (changing wallpaper in the home?) or it will stay niche until the patents run out and the tech can find more applications that currently don't make sense because the licensing fees would be too high.
userbinator 5y ago
surely they could do something about this too? Invalidate all patents? That would do it, but I'm sure there's plenty of opposition.

radu_floricica 5y ago

Why do you think this is price gouging and not just expensive to make? Plenty of things cost a heap of money even after years of development - I'm pretty sure you can buy a flying car if you have a billion lying around.

spiderice 5y ago

> cut back on paper-books I read an article posted here on HN about how using an iPad to cut back on paper basically never becomes worth it (from an environmental perspective). If you already have an iPad, sure, use it for not taking and it will be better than using paper. But don't go buy an iPad specifically to save on paper, because that will make the problem worse. I wonder how much of that same principle applies to e-ink displays. They obviously use a lot less power, so maybe it would be worth it. I'm really not sure. edit: did a quick Google search. I believe this was the article: https://slate.com/technology/2011/09/paper-versus-the-ipad-is-taking-notes-on-a-tablet-computer-or-a-notepad-more-environmentally-responsible.html https://slate.com/technology/2011/09/paper-versus-the-ipad-i...

deleted 5y ago

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stevehawk 5y ago

what price gouging are we talking about?

orliesaurus 5y ago
that's why I put it into quotes - I can't think of a better word for it

orliesaurus 5y ago

I put "price gouging" into quotes - as a non-native, I can't think of a better word for it

goodpoint 5y ago

> kinda a monopoly "thanks" to patents is 100% a monopoly. But maybe there is hope https://blog.the-ebook-reader.com/2015/03/02/german-court-finds-e-ink-patent-invalid-files-in-favor-of-trekstor/ https://blog.the-ebook-reader.com/2015/03/02/german-court-fi...

eigenvalue 5y ago

If you didn't have billions of people around the world buying them, the technology in your typical smartphone would cost many many thousands of dollars. Big markets with big demand can drive down cost curves almost unimaginably. It starts making sense to hire smart people to look at every aspect of how the thing works and is made, and to invest huge amounts of capital into equipment that can only be justified when the number of units is in the tens of millions. Something as niche as oversized passive e-ink screens will never attract that capital or expertise, since it could never recoup those costs. Eventually someone will either improve the technology enough for it to have a large end market (changing wallpaper in the home?) or it will stay niche until the patents run out and the tech can find more applications that currently don't make sense because the licensing fees would be too high.

userbinator 5y ago

surely they could do something about this too? Invalidate all patents? That would do it, but I'm sure there's plenty of opposition.