E Ink Makes a Splash
by Joe Dysart
Although
most of us have long since grown immune to claims of a "revolutionary
paradigm shift," Jim Iuliano is worth a listen. Quite simply, Iuliano,
chief executive officer of Cambridge, Mass.-based E Ink Corp., plans to
eliminate traditional printing and distribution costs.
His vision? Instantaneous delivery of breaking news via the Internet and wireless transmitters to an ultra-thin plastic film coated with "electronic ink." In other words, a true electronic newspaper.
"Electronic ink promises to revolutionize the newspaper industry," says Iuliano, a featured speaker at January’s NAA Newspaper Operations SuperConference in Miami Beach. "Printing and distribution costs disappear. The publishing cycle collapses, [so] print news can be delivered as it occurs."
Futuristic, perhaps. But the core technology is not only ready for market, it’s already in the marketplace. JC Penney now beams black-and-white promotional messages to selected stores in Massachusetts and Chicago. The messages are received by wireless pagers and displayed on E Ink-powered signs.
Backed by $15.8 million from Motorola Inc., Hearst Corp. and others, E Ink also partnered with technology giant Lucent Technologies Inc. last fall to bring electronic newspapers and books to market within five years.
"The electronic newspaper would look like a newspaper does today," Iuliano says. "At a minimum, it could be creased in one predetermined fold."
Easier to read than today’s portable liquid-crystal displays, electronic ink consists of millions of tiny microcapsules filled with dark dyes and light pigments. The capsules migrate to form words and pictures when triggered by electrical pulses from a grid of flexible transistors embedded in E Ink’s plastic-film paper. Perhaps most interesting, once words and pictures are rendered, E Ink does not need a power source to retain the image.
By 2004, Iuliano expects the technology to scale down to newspaper size and be capable of rendering color images. While vague on cost projections, Iuliano believes he can ultimately create a manufacturing plant for about $1 million. Compare that to today’s $1 billion price tag for a plant producing conventional LCD displays, he argues, and the electronic-newspaper vision becomes a little clearer.
Dysart is a Thousand Oaks, Calif., Internet-business consultant. E-mail, joedysart@aol.com; phone, (805) 379-3841.