Fujitsu debuts e-paper tablet device (updated)

Fujitsu debuts e-paper tablet device (updated)
By Jon Stokes
http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20070423-fujitsu-debuts-e-paper-tablet-pc.html


At some point, I'm going to write my very last e-paper/e-ink article for Ars. After almost a decade of thin, flexible, low-power displays being "three to five years away," I can finally see that the time for e-paper's mass-market debut is almost upon us. A case in point is Fujitsu's new FLEPia portable tablet, samples of which are now available in limited supply as of this past Friday.

FLEPia boasts an array of impressive features, starting with its display. The device is based on Fujitsu's e-paper technology, a technology that the company announced over two years ago. In a nutshell, Fujitsu's e-paper works by sandwiching a thin layer of liquid crystal between two sheets of plastic. The application of an electrical charge causes a pixel of the liquid crystal to change states from clear to opaque, with the result that multi-pixel displays require energy only when the image is changed. Red, green, and blue layers of the material are fused together to make color versions of the display that can output either 8 or 4,096 colors.

This display technology, which appears as an XGA touchscreen in the FLEPia device, is backed by pretty standard PDA-level hardware: an Intel XScale processor, an 802.11b/g card, USB 2.0 support, a headphone jack, an SD card, and so on. The tablet runs Windows CE 5.0, and its battery can stand up to 50 hours of usage.

With a physical profile right out of Star Trek and a lightweight, color e-paper-based display that comes in standard paper sizes (A4 and A5), it might seem at first that FLEPia means that e-paper is now just another display technology. And if it's just another display technology, then I can quit writing about e-paper, right? Well, no.

The A5 and A4 models that were announced on Friday carry price tags of $1,264.85 and $2,107.81, respectively. According to Fujitsu, these things won't hit consumer-level price points until at least 2010, which puts them... yep, three to five years away.

Oh well. At least the Sony Reader has finally brought e-ink to the mass market. Of course, judging by reviews, the monochrome device is hobbled by a number of implementation issues that make me want to steer clear of it for the time being. Maybe by the time Sony fixes the problems to the point where they can nail the "mass" part of "mass market," Fujitsu or someone else will be further along with a potential competitor.

Update: The price originally quoted was for lots of ten, and not individual units. This was by all accounts clearly marked on the Japanese press release, but not being a reader of Japanese I didn't catch it. The correct prices have now been included.