June 1st, 2009
Kindles in color by 2010? Prime View to buy E Ink for $215M
E-book news is in a flurry today with the shipping date announced for the new Kindle DX, and Google announcing it will be selling e-books, but there’s some more news to add to the pile: According to a Reuters story, Taiwanese display maker Prime View International is buying E Ink — the company that invented and produces the e-ink displays for Amazon and Sony e-readers.
Prime View is willing to pay about $215 million for the company, which came out of a Massachusetts Institute of Technology lab about 10 years ago. The Reuters story talked about the idea of color displays being mass produced in the very near future.
The market for digital book readers is among the fastest-growing segments of the troubled consumer electronics industry. Research firm Suppli estimates the fledgling market will grow from 1.1 million units last year to 20 million in 2012.
E Ink Vice President Sriram Peruvemba said the deal would provide the financing and manpower needed to fuel development of color displays, slated for mass production at the end of 2010.
Both the Kindle and Sony Reader’s displays are currently only available in black and white. E-Ink provides the front part of the flexible displays to Amazon and Sony, and Prime View makes the back end and assembles the displays, so it’s an obvious move for the company.
Will we see Kindles in color by 2010? We’ll have to wait and see.
[Via Reuters]
Jennifer R. Bergen is a journalist and blogger living in New York City. See her full profile and disclosure of her industry affiliations.
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| 06/01/09
