But when you're done reading it, you could plug it into a phone line or a wireless receiver and change the entire content of the book. Amazing as that seems, almost everyone familiar with EInk thinks the company can pull it off. They're going to get there. A number of other companies have jumped in with their money, including publishers Havas, Central Newspapers and McClatchy. Lucent Technologies has become a partner, marrying technology discovered at Lucent's Bell Labs to EInk's breakthroughs to make electronic paper possible much sooner.
Analysts expect to see other companies jump into the game in coming years.
EInk appears to be the leader. By pushing ahead with crude early versions of its technology, EInk is first to have a product on the market. Because it's easier to use electronic ink to make large chunky letters than small, elegant type, EInk is beginning by making indoor signs. That business is being launched now. J.C. Penney has the first EInk sign, hanging in a Marlborough, Mass., store.