E Ink recently became the first company to bring electronic ink to market, beating Xerox PARC's Gyricon Media , which researched the technology for more than two decades. Lucent Technologies and E Ink demonstrated the first flexible electronic ink prototype in November 2000. So far E Ink has focused on developing these large text displays. But the agreement with Philips marks a fundamental shift toward creating high-resolution, graphical electronic displays. The benefits of electronic ink are clear.
Electronic ink is three to six times brighter than reflective LCDs.
The displays can be read without back-lighting, in both dim light and full sunlight. In addition to being more readable, devices using electronic ink displays are expected to be 30 percent thinner and lighter than traditional LCD displays. What's more, electronic ink allows a fixed image to remain on screen even after the power source is shut off. One of the primary reasons that most consumers haven't accepted e-books is their lack of readability, Wilcox said. Electronic ink displays will allow manufacturers to create dedicated devices that have the same power draw and weight but offer a larger screen.