Amazon Buys Sunlight Readable Color Display Company Liquavista 56
Nate the greatest writes "It looks like those 4 month old rumors are true. Amazon has confirmed today that they have bought Liquavista, a Netherlands based screen tech company. There's no info yet on how much Amazon paid to Samsung, but previous rumors suggested that the asking price was under $100 million. Amazon also isn't talking about how they plan to use the electrowetting screen tech, but many are assuming that a Color Kindle is in the works."
Well of course. (Score:5, Insightful)
Amazon also isn't talking about how they plan to use the electrowetting screen tech, but many are assuming that a Color Kindle is in the works."
Something I learned many, many years ago watching Apple's amazing marketing division at work. Leak. Leak early, leak often. Spread rumors. But deny everything. This accomplishes two things: First, it gives you very accurate marketing data on what your customers are expecting and want. Second, it creates an atmosphere of expectation and excitement. By carefully modulating these things, you can multiply the amount of advertising for your product many, many times over what conventional marketing can do.
Amazon is just taking a page from Apple's playbook.
Re: Well of course. (Score:5, Funny)
Microsoft did this in the 90's
Windows 8 is still missing features hyped almost 20 years ago
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Starting up your word processor is as easy as running over and opening a door in Wolf3D!
Re: Well of course. (Score:5, Funny)
Stop Son!
I see you're trying to open a document with embedded macros. Would you like to scan this file for malware first, or would you like me to install the malware myself?
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Now that's an idea for an AI bot in a game.
"Stop son! I see you're trying to open a document with embedded demons. Would you like to scan this portal for malware first,..."
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There is a big differance between Microsoft and Appl.e
Microsoft gave deadlines on when things would ship sometimes vauge - but they would annouce what they where doing.
Apple will not even say that it has a working product until launch.
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Yeah. But unfortunately, Microsoft typically don't have a working product at launch.
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Re: Well of course. (Score:1)
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Could you please direct us to the factual basis for your claims that Apple deliberately leaks information as a marketing tactic?
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http://www.macobserver.com/tmo/article/how_apple_does_controlled_leaks
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Something I learned many, many years ago watching Apple's amazing marketing division at work. Leak. Leak early, leak often.
Pst ... don't tell anyone but there's going to be a great new HURD desktop.
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Nice referrer link! I think they would want a display that doesn't drain a battery quite like the displays on most active screen tablets (you'd be lucky to get 8 hours out of a current Fire). This would be more for the low-power-draw devices like the Kindle Paperweight.
Re:You mean like the Kindle Fire? (Score:4, Informative)
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Color kindle *that has the benefits of e-ink*. Reading the fire in the sun isn't a very pleasant experience, but with this display tech it would be.
Re:You mean like the Kindle Fire? (Score:5, Interesting)
I may buy a tablet in the next year or two, but I'm not planning letting go of my B&W Kindle w/ e-ink -- unless it's to replace it with a color e-ink model.
Trying to read a book on a backlit LCD screen in a pain in the ass on a good day and simply not possible in direct sunlight.
I love that Amazon has made (quite good) Kindle apps for just every piece of hardware I own - and I use them - but mainly for trying out samples and calling up specific passages.
Once you get hooked on e-ink, it's hard to go back to anything else.
Re:You mean like the Kindle Fire? (Score:4, Interesting)
That's the interesting thing about this technology. It can be reflective OR backlit. Combining it with the paperwhite lighting should work great.
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While I will be the first to admit that e-ink is truly wonderful for direct sunlight condition, I still have to say, "Wow, hyperbole much?"
A month ago I spent four days' vacation in the Dominican Republic, most of which was spent lounging around the pool with my wife. She's got a Kindle Fire and I have a Nook Color. Neither one of us had any problem at all reading books in sunlight bright enough to require sunglasses.
Here's
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I had 2 e-ink readers, and did like them quite a bit... but then I got a Nexus 7 and haven't touched them. The screen is perfectly usable outdoors. Not AWESOME... but usable. In partial shade, like sitting next to the window on a bus, it's fantastic.
YMMV.
uh... (Score:1)
My kindle is color... do they mean color e-ink?
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Yes, this is a company with color e-ink technology.
Re:uh... (Score:4, Informative)
No, they're not. It's not eInk at all. It's a new method of building a color LCD panel that is reflective. Entirely different.
Color eInk already exists. Google the Etaco Jetbook Color. 4096 colors and slow refresh rate (like B/W eInk). Not the same thing other than they're both reflective, color displays.
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It isn't e-ink, but it also isn't an LCD. RTFA.
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It's very similar to e-ink, the way LCD is similar to the same technology that's been powering your clock for 30 years.
"Color e-ink" is a good shorthand way of thinking about it.
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Electrowetting has actually been around 10 years at least, and when I wrote an essay on the topic some 5 years ago I found a lot of studies on the subject albeit mostly by the same few authors:
http://scholar.google.com/scholar?q=electrowetting [google.com]
At the time when I was studying the subject the spotlight was on LCD- and OLED-displays, as they were evolving rapidly. Electrowetting was not at the time utilized anywhere, except for conceptual designs and prototypes.
To be honest, I hadn't followed up on the topic at
Samsung. (Score:2)
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Well clearly they're not planning to use it and instead are selling it Amazon.
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Alex Jones called, he wants his "gold medal for worst conspiracy theory ever" back.
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Samsung sold Liquavista to Amazon and likely all IP and licensing rigths. According to rumors, it was sold at the same price they bought it for. So Samsung took a big wash on the deal since they put a lot of resources into the company in while they held it.
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Samsung just bought Liquavista in 2012.. interesting.. How will that work? I mean Samsung is more than likely going to use this technology.
If I had to guess, Samsung gets a perpetual license to the technology at a small cost+ margin while Amazon foots the R&D bill. Probably Samsung was moving too slowly for what Amazon wanted, Bezos thought he could do better, so he made Samsung a win-win deal.
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That's a good guess, but wouldn't Samsung rather have the technology and any potential patents?
Samsung is pretty good at making smart technology moves - buying factories, and other companies at the right time, and then dominating the market. You would think that this would be a nice technology to have with their tv/tablet/phone/laptop screen technology.
So maybe there are issues with the company (inept management, etc), intellectual property (ie the violate someone's patents), or technology (there are still
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Or maybe Samsung sees the future on OLED, and doesn't want to spend resources on a stepping-stone technology
Yeah, good call. Amazon needs to stay top dog continuously, for its business model. $100M for three years of dominance might well be a good bargain. Samsung could skip a few years and wind up with the best display technology (which Amazon would buy) and they'd both still do well.
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I've been avoiding them since they demonstrated with 1984 that they could remove books already purchased. I wouldn't actually say I was boycotting them, I'm merely no longer buying anything from them. Or recommending them. I also, however, don't buy much for the Nook, because I don't trust it not to be DRM infested. But it's a decent reader for e-pub text documents, most of which I get from Project Gutenberg .
(OTOH, despite many worthy actions, I don't trust Barnes&Nobel because of some rather sleaz
Re: Compare to e-ink (Score:2)
That depends if it's rgb or ycm, rgb has low max brightness/contrast (more grey than white) without active lighting ... but ycm might have trouble with viewing angles (it's hard to say no one has demonstrated one yet).
That said, they have a youtube clip showing a rgb display playing a pokemon cartoon and with the right lighting and content even rgb can look amazing ... but not good enough to displace black and white for text.