Plastic Logic Limited

Plastic Logic is the next hot topic in the world of electronic book readers. The 3 most prevalent e-book readers on the market right now are the Amazon Kindle, Sony\'s reader, and the Irex. The 3 listed companies all use technology from E-ink made from a factory called Prime View located in Taiwan. What makes Plastic Logic different from these 3 companies is their display screens are much more durable. The display technology for these products wo... More >>

Plastic Logic is the next hot topic in the world of electronic book readers. The 3 most prevalent e-book readers on the market right now are the Amazon Kindle, Sony\'s reader, and the Irex. The 3 listed companies all use technology from E-ink made from a factory called Prime View located in Taiwan. What makes Plastic Logic different from these 3 companies is their display screens are much more durable. The display technology for these products work by having small charged particles, some white, some black, depending on the charge the grid will pull one of the colors to the surface and create an image. But Plastic Logic preforms this technique on a plastic surface while Amazon, Sony, and Irex use glass. If I punched each ebook reader, Plastic Logic would probably be the only one to survive.<br /> <br /> Currently only Amazon and Sony are selling decently, and they aren\'t making much profits at the moment. I\'m not sure how Plastic Logic would preform when they come out in 2009 since the market demand for ebook readers isn\'t very hot at the moment. Also Amazon is releasing their second version of the kindle in the spring of 2009 and it\'ll have support from a hug library collection from books. So their current state isn\'t looking too good unless they create a well thought out strategy on dominating the market.<br /> <br /> The other problem with these ebook readers is they don\'t have an intelligent design on user-interface. It\'s a hassle to read newspapers on these devices because some people prefer to skim through articles to find something they like to read. These readers don\'t have software that\'s complementary to our habits in reading. If they created software making the transition from reading physical books/papers/magazines to ebook readers they would have a leg up against Amazon and Sony. <br /> <br /> But in 5-10 years we\'ll all have an ebook reader, which company will dominate the market is still up for grabs.<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br><span class=\"add_review\">On 12/31/2008, Bin added:</span><br> I forgot the mention the comparison between Plastic Logic\'s display technology v.s. LCD. LCD screens constantly emit light, with Plastic Logic\'s display it doesn\'t emit light. It works by creating contrasts between black and white. The advantage of this technology is you can read it in almost an environment and it consumes low amounts of energy. The human eye works by adjusting how much light enters, on a bright day if you bring your laptop outside the screen may have glare, or if you turn off the lights the LCD screen on your laptop may be too bright. Plastic Logic screens are visible in all types of lit settings, and doesn\'t strain the eye. But the refresh rate of the screen takes 1 second, so don\'t expect any games requiring fast reflexes to be made for these screens.<br /> << Less