The future is (e) paper!

Expected in developed nations by 2011, business strategies and product development utilizing advanced e-paper and flexible screens are already under way. "The revolution will come from stationers and printers, like Dai Nippon Printing or Toppan, not electronics manufacturers," said Bruno Rives, the founder of Tebaldo. 

Really? Since when do printers have the industrial capacity to manufacture electronic and plastic components? This break, or 'rupture,' in the words of the AFP reporter, resembles the actual physicality of e-paper, its bizzare status between the computer in function and old-school paper in form. 

Much of the development of e-paper and 'electronic ink' has come from Asia, South Korea in particular. With the market for eReaders (and thus e-paper) slowly expanding, more and more manufacturers and developers are getting involved. 

Despite the failure of eReaders at academic functions and their rejection by institutions of learning, the AFP report calls for the education sector to be one of the first users of e-paper, for interactive manuals. There is definitely a lot of potential for the technology, but now, during economic recession and pressing global issues, is not a time for speculation ('airports, hospitals, parking garages, technical documents are next' claim AFP) but rather reasonable market assessment. 

Currently, the e-paper Tebaldo presented is limited to color (2-3,000 colors) only on the A3 and A4 formats, where contrast and framerate issues remain to be worked out. The A5 and A7 formats are flexible and can be rolled up, but are black and white only for the time being. Several manufacturers (Fujitsu, Bridgestone) have models that include precise writing and underlining features, and small parts of some models' screens support audio and video. 

The best part is that the technology is remarkably cheap; an A5 model of an encyclopedia is projected to cost only $20 by 2011. This is not to mention the great environmental potential of saving hundreds of thousands of sheets of paper. 

The benefit for newspaper editors? Having a device that is both 'static and dynamic,' with wireless updates and great personalization options, claims AFP. 

While this technology certainly is innovative and can open new doors of media development, distribution, and gadgetry, the novelty and use resides mostly in its flexible physical form. Besides the fact that it can be rolled, there would be little incentive to use or buy such a device; smartphones, netbooks, tablets and other devices provide a larger range of functions and options and are already well established in the market. 

As for the environmental aspect, one of the commenter to the AFP article hits the nail on the head: Paper can be recycled, plastic and electronic components cannot, at least for now. There is something exquisitely absurd in thinking that drilling up oil and metals halfway around the world, shipping it another halfway to be processed and formed into a gadget with a surely limited lifetime is somehow more environmental than using paper from trees, which regrow. Oil (for plastics) and metal do not regrow, and the places you have to go to get them and then fashion them into actual things costs money and more fuel. 

But neither absurdity nor reason has stopped business as usual. I know I'll probably end up getting an e-paper enabled device sometime in the future anyway.

Source: AFP MediaWatch, Tebaldo