E-Paper Devices Face an Uphill Battle

A few weeks ago, Guardian Unlimited posted a good article about the experience of using an e-paper reading device.  I believe it is probably a fair assessment of the devices currently available for consumers. I have been thinking a lot about these e-paper devices and here is what I believe needs to happen before they will get any kind of penetration in any market: they need to be very cheap or have additional uses besides just reading.

Here is the problem that e-paper devices need to overcome: with other media, such as music, movies, TV shows, etc., we have always had to buy a device to watch that media. Televisions for TV shows, DVD players for movies, and cassette/CD/MP3 players for music. But printed media has never before required a device to read it. The device (paper) always comes with the content. Therefore, getting people to buy a device in order to read printed content will require changing a mindset that is very well ingrained in the consumer psyche.  I believe that those obstacles can only be overcome if the devices are very inexpensive (much less than the current $200-$300 price tag) and/or the devices contain other functionality beyond reading, such as playing MP3s,  PDA functions, or video playback.  If consumers don’t need to pay much or feel they are getting a device that performs tasks that they are used to paying for, then I think adoption of such devices could happen very quickly.

Devices that have e-paper features will eventually make roads into the consumer market, but it will take a few years before they can overcome the obstacles that I listed above.  That being said, you should pay attention to the development of this technology because it will eventually have a big impact on how we consume print media.