As somebody who has been watching the subnotebook market since the mid-nineties, I'm delighted with recent developments but think that there's a basic form factor change that is coming soon enough that we should be keeping it more in mind.
E-paper is a new thing. It is not just another glass-fronted, high complexity variation on the same old variables we've all done our best to accommodate since the days of the first luggables. In terms of mechanical behavior and limitations, it looks like it may truly be quite a bit like a thick sheet of paper. Rollable, inexpensive, and very low power indeed.
That being so, I suspect that it's not too many years before we see portable computers that, when not in use, are basically tubes. I would guess they will settle into a diameter a little larger than an inch, at most two inches. The display means will be e-paper that is rolled out of the tube on a spring-loaded mechanism that can both become rigid enough to hold a flat form and malleable enough to spring right back in when released from some sort of adjustable frame. This also means that you can pull out only as much display real estate as you need. Standing on the bus? Roll out a few inches. Sitting at a desk? Pull out enough to get six to ten inches of length. Maybe even more.
With such a low-power display means and the direction power consumption in general is going, look to see these devices capable of running off no more than the power generated by the act of carrying it around. In the unlikely event that you run low on power, just hold it up and shake it for a bit. The one variable that doesn't seem to be improving much is power consumption for telecommunications. Haven't got anything to say on that one; I simply don't know enough about the tech or the regulatory future.
These things being the case, many of the discussions we're seeing now about what "the" form factor and optimized interfaces for things like ebooks will be seem a bit silly to me. Might as well discuss the weather on one specific day two dozen years from now. We just don't know yet and might as well admit it. If anything, as the technological options get broader, we should expect that these devices will become more like what USB flash drive cases and LED desk lights are becoming now - a few basic constants to an otherwise entirely plastic set of dimensions, proportions, case materials, and retail prices. In fact, if I were a young industrial design student right now, I would be playing around with every possible combination I could possibly come up with, from massive bronze cases to unfolding plastic trees to ones that look just like yellow legal pads and are designed to be disposable. There will be a lot of demand for people to demand such things in the not too distant future and the few who have truly built a track record of exploring radically different form factors will be sitting pretty.
We've got a long way to go and some serious paradigm shifts along the path before we settle down.
Happy holidays.
E-paper is a new thing. It is not just another glass-fronted, high complexity variation on the same old variables we've all done our best to accommodate since the days of the first luggables. In terms of mechanical behavior and limitations, it looks like it may truly be quite a bit like a thick sheet of paper. Rollable, inexpensive, and very low power indeed.
That being so, I suspect that it's not too many years before we see portable computers that, when not in use, are basically tubes. I would guess they will settle into a diameter a little larger than an inch, at most two inches. The display means will be e-paper that is rolled out of the tube on a spring-loaded mechanism that can both become rigid enough to hold a flat form and malleable enough to spring right back in when released from some sort of adjustable frame. This also means that you can pull out only as much display real estate as you need. Standing on the bus? Roll out a few inches. Sitting at a desk? Pull out enough to get six to ten inches of length. Maybe even more.
With such a low-power display means and the direction power consumption in general is going, look to see these devices capable of running off no more than the power generated by the act of carrying it around. In the unlikely event that you run low on power, just hold it up and shake it for a bit. The one variable that doesn't seem to be improving much is power consumption for telecommunications. Haven't got anything to say on that one; I simply don't know enough about the tech or the regulatory future.
These things being the case, many of the discussions we're seeing now about what "the" form factor and optimized interfaces for things like ebooks will be seem a bit silly to me. Might as well discuss the weather on one specific day two dozen years from now. We just don't know yet and might as well admit it. If anything, as the technological options get broader, we should expect that these devices will become more like what USB flash drive cases and LED desk lights are becoming now - a few basic constants to an otherwise entirely plastic set of dimensions, proportions, case materials, and retail prices. In fact, if I were a young industrial design student right now, I would be playing around with every possible combination I could possibly come up with, from massive bronze cases to unfolding plastic trees to ones that look just like yellow legal pads and are designed to be disposable. There will be a lot of demand for people to demand such things in the not too distant future and the few who have truly built a track record of exploring radically different form factors will be sitting pretty.
We've got a long way to go and some serious paradigm shifts along the path before we settle down.
Happy holidays.
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