Pixel Qi combines e-ink challenger and color for sometime next year

The Pixel Qi will be quite a combo and I hope Bezos is looking at it for the next generation Kindle, beyond the Kindle DX.  A lot of work is needed first.

It combines an e-ink type of screen mode with a color screen mode.  As for the time-frame we can expect this to beocme a reality for actual devices on the market, Josh Quittner writes:

' The displays still have a way to go, of course.  A third party would need to build a proper motherboard, optimized for the display and an e-reader.  (Simply slapping a PQ display on the Acer gives it an extra hour or so of battery life; an optimized e-reader essentially goes to sleep between the turn of each page, saving far more power, among other things.)  But Mary Lou said that a manufacturer could buy PQ's technology today and have an e-reader that could render high-def text, on a full color page, and video, by the first quarter of next year.  The screens are cheap to produce, too—well under $200, she said. Such a device ought to enjoy 40 hours or so of use as an e-reader, between charges.  Video would drain the battery faster, obviously. '

I can't imagine that if this is workable that Bezos won't make an effort to use it for future Kindles.

UPDATE - 6/1/09 (Original posting: 5/31/09 - 9:03 PM)   In an earlier entry on this blog about the cost of the components for the Kindle, iSuppli's supervising analyst, Andrew Rasseiler, estimates the cost of the e-ink display at $60 "or about 42% of the cost of materials."  So, the Pixel Qi screen costing "well under $200" indicates a fairly costly device, when the wireless is included as it is now.

  Also, Taiwan’s Prime View International is buying E-Ink in Cambridge, Massachusetts, for $215 million.  They are the company that currently integrates the Kindle's E-Ink screen into the final module and will combine the two companies now into a single public company.  E-Ink's founder and CEO, Russell J. Wilcox, says they can now "streamline the supply chain and speed up new product." It'd be nice to lower the costs while they're at it. :-)

UPDATE - 6/3/09 - CNet offers more info on what PVI does and what its relationship has been with epaper manufacturer E Ink of Cambridge, Mass.  They worked together on Sony readers as well.  As a wholly-owned subsidiary of PVI, once the deal is approved, E Ink will likely add another 20 workers to its 120-member staff.

UPDATE - 6/3/09 - (Original posting: 5/31/09 - 9:03 PM)   A closer look at Pixel Qi's images.
  Kindle Zen's Steve Bains has an interesting article on Pixel Qi's images and the lighting and angles involved, and there's a video demo of the prototype screen in action on the streets in sunlight.  Bains points out that CNet's Peter Glaskowsky has cautioned that some of the marketing in the past by Mary Lou Jepson, Pixel Qi's founder, who was CTO for the One Laptop Per Child project, has included claims that Glaskowsky doesn't find quite supportable and which he terms "hyperbole." I'm not quite sure why Glaskowsky finds PQ's focus too narrow when I'd think that would be a criticism of companies like E Ink also - and Pixel Qi's technology looks quite promising.

Pay a visit to Kindle Zen to see the full report by Bains and the many other interesting stories on their site, somewhat off the beaten path.

UPDATE - 6/8/09 - New video of Kindle 1 next to Pixel Qi in all kinds of light.  I was surprised at how green the Pixel Qi screen looks, next to the Kindle.

Kindle DX and its target audience

So this is not the anticipated 'K3' but the 'DX'?

  Has the lower price than was expected confused the presupposed division of target audiences for Kindle-1&2 users?

  It's still packable and there is less room used by the keyboard.

  These are first reactions on the day the DX was announced.
  Online mags are showing the "first official pictures" of the DX which are all pics from Amazon's own Kindle DX page, which has a large video demo and 'guided tour' of its functioning.

  Re DX vs K2, think K2 enlarged beyond purse-size, with no buttons on the left side (favoring lefthand-users for one-handed use) and less vertical space given the keyboard (long a wish of many).  So what else does it do besides let you see content better or see more of the same while also being heavier to hold when reading books?  The Amazon page has charts showing the differences between the DX and the K2.  

  Unfortunately, they blare that it can read PDFs natively while the K2 cannot, which means they likely don't intend to provide a firmware update that will provide native PDF support for the K2 even if it would be on a smaller screen.  Not an admirable move.
  But for those who like to stockpile and miss their K1 SD cards, it will hold an average 3500 text-based books.

  And there is said to be more RAM (no figure given) which usually means faster processing capability and definitely better ability to handle web-browsing of complex pages while the auto-rotating feature (which is optional) ensures better visual displays of webpages, especially online-newspapers.  While I would not want to replace my K2 as it is always with me and fits well into my purse, no extra carrying care needed, I may sell my K1 finally and ultimately get this for home and special use outside.

  I would not get it for just books.  Nor want to hold something that large for my daily reading of books and my newspaper feeds and subscriptions.

  But even if native PDF support were to be included in the K2 later, it would be, on a 6" in screen, unreadable when the pdfs are image-scans of small text.

  So for me it's not a 'replacement' for the K2, for K2 owners.  An addition maybe, for those with enough spare change.  New buyers may be attracted to it over the K2 though, but they'll need larger carrying cases and it'll be a separate item to remember to carry or pick up unless one uses a briefcase or backpack or quite large purse.
  Those with poor eyesight, who have problems with the smaller e-readers, will also find it an attraction.

  They don't seem that different in size in some photos (though the difference is large enough for those who carry their K2s everywhere with them), but this image and this one as well both show otherwise.

 And then there's THIS! ---)   Whoa!  I've never carried around a book that size but do have them for home-use.

  For those whose primary focus is carrying books or a library of books wherever they go, the segment of that group that carries Kindles in their purses will find this less attractive, but for students and business professionals, it will be quite doable in backpacks and briefcases -- and much better for technical textbook reading as well as business presentations.  I expect professors and business users will find the PDF support and larger screen well worth it to handle papers and presentations.
Peter Glaskowsky, writing for CNet, opines that this unit will not be ideal for textbooks for the natural or formal sciences, and it's the lack of color differentiation that is most key there.

But soon the full 8x10 screens will be (and some already are) offering the ability to write directly on the screen, with touch screen control, and able to show a normal multi-column newspaper layout.  The Kindle DX still displays newspaper articles as contained text (which has been fine for readers like me).

With two units this similar though, offered only 3 months apart -- ironically with the pricing being barely more than a $100 difference and with PDFs natively read in the unit (which means that they should be able to incorporate this as an upgrade to the Kindle 2) -- it can cause some people to hesitate more before deciding what to buy - one of the Kindles or a simpler, less capable and less expensive e-reader by anyone while the market settles down. (Nevuh happens.)  Still, for me, the more options and capabilities offered, the better.  

Since PDFs, even formatted correctly, are not ideal when scaled down to the Kindle-2's 6" screen and therefore no threat to sales of the DX if readable on the K2 also, Amazon should make PDF native support upgrades to the Kindle-2 now or customers will likely wonder at what some could consider bait and switch tactics.  I'm hoping they'll do the right thing.  Or explain why it can't be done.  A competitor can do it, why not Amazon?

In the meantime, many bought the K2 for the small size and 24/7 wireless factors and won't be overexcited about spending yet another $130 for a larger version they can't as easily carry around.  The paperback-size feature has been a large attraction and I'm sure it will continue to be.

 A quick look at the Amazon forums shows less interest (at the moment) in the new model than I'd expected to see from current Kindle-1 and Kindle-2 owners.
 My next purchase of $350 or over will likely be a 10" Netbook - for now, likely the Samsung, but that can change in a matter of days in this world.  The Asus I had been planning on before reading about the Samsung, is now available for $100 + a wireless contract (not WiFi but 24/7 wireless for about $50-$60/month.  So much to consider in this rapidly changing world.

Nevertheless, business professionals and some students will find the $489 a good price when 24/7 wireless is included (for how long for free?) and if textbook publishers are sane about their pricing for Kindle textbooks.  As some have pointed out earlier, textbook publishers have been making customized books for universities under special agreements that still give them a decent margin.  Would those be willing to do a general Kindle version instead and price it appropriately?  In this economy you'd think printing companies would take stock and seek survival rather than grossest margins :-)

But Amazon has done well, where other companies haven't, in this recession and if they do well by all their customers who have already invested money in their Kindles, they'll stay ahead of the game.  An important If.  The Kindle is not like a separate TV purchase, it's more like a cable-TV subscription cable-tv-program receiver unit.  The unit, for the vendor, is about the content that can be sold.  That's something for Amazon to keep in mind.

In the meantime, if I had to make a decision between the two units today, I would still choose the K2, for its size, as I'm one who carries my Kindle everywhere and I love reading on it anywhere I am.  But if not interested in books that much or in just reading news on the run, and very active in sharing paperwork and presentations, and with no Kindle already, I'd spring for this.

UPDATES:
To get an idea of the DX features and functioning, here is a a copy of the Kindle DX User’s Guide 1st Edition in PDF format, readable on any computer.

Here's a good report, with good photos, of Jeff Bezos' announcement/press conference today, by FastCompany's Chris Dannen.

  Gizmodo's Brian Lam reports first reactions to a very brief hands-on experience with it.  This includes Gizmodo's own photos and their video of this.   They mention that it's almost twice as heavy, with somewhat stiff action in the buttons and a response-time that is almost as fast as with the K2 because although the DX has a faster processer, it has much more data to process for a page.  Brian was unhappy with the autorotate's relatively slow processing.

  Wired's Brian X. Chen weighs in with a hands-on assessment and more photos and echos Gizmodo's hands-on re the slow roundtrip for an inadvertent auto-rotate (7 seconds) while finding the 5-way wheel not to his liking on either the K2 or DX (I like its direct navigation though; even if it's sluggish it saves us from the many dialog-screens of the Kindle-1 before getting where we want).  He also finds the web-browsing slow but doesn't say relative to the K2 or to a normal computer's browser.

  Good, varied screen examples by Engadget's Joshua Topolsky during the live event.

  Hmmm, they'd almost have me (if I didn't already have a purseable Kindle2) with the note in their press release that sheet music can be used with this and page-turns done with a press of a button).

  Thinking...if the DX had been first, many would jump at the 'new' 'COMPACT' K2 :-)