Archive for the ‘cancelled’ tag
Qualcomm takes Mirasol ereader back to the drawing board no comments
Pocket-lint is reporting that Qualcomm has canceled an ereader product using
the Mirasol display that was planned for this year. Qualcomm CEO Paul Jacobs is quoted as saying that he wasn’t happy with the product and decided not to launch it with the current generation of Mirasol. Jacobs also said that the planned device was “a low volume ereader product,” which I’m interpreting as meaning it would have been quite expensive.
Qualcomm is continuing work on the technology and hopefully we will see devices using an improved version of this low-powered reflective color display, but that’s not likely this year.
Most of the prototypes I’ve seen were flaunting the Mirasol display’s prowess at showing color images, but at SID 2011 I got a good look at a Mirasol demo running an ebook simulation. It did seem to me that while Mirasol’s reflective color display is quite good at color graphics, it is not as good as e-ink for reading ebooks.
This bit of news probably lends more credence to the rumors that Amazon is using an LCD screen for a forthcoming tablet.
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Plastic Logic Que eReader Officially Dead no comments
Plastic Logic released a press release today in which the Que ereader is officially pronounced DBA (dead before arrival):
Plastic Logic today announced it is revising its product strategy and plans to shift its focus to bring to market a second-generation ProReader plastic electronics-based product. The company said it has cancelled its QUE product, which it debuted at CES in January 2010 and planned to ship earlier this year.
"We recognize the market has dramatically changed, and with the product delays we have experienced, it no longer make sense for us to move forward with our first generation electronic reading product," said Plastic Logic CEO Richard Archuleta. "This was a hard decision, but is the best one for our company, our investors and our customers."
Archuleta indicates that Plastic Logic has not completely given up on plans to release an ereader at some point:
"We plan to take the necessary time needed to re-enter the market as we refocus, redesign and retool for our next generation ProReader product. We continue to perfect our core plastic electronic technology and manufacturing processes that are central to our product’s unique value proposition.
I reported yesterday that it looked as though Plastic Logic was in the process of being becoming part of Rusnano, a Russian state-owned nanotechnology corporation. I would think that Rusnano is more interested in Plastic Logic’s plastic electronics technology than in making an ereader. This technology has the potential to revolutionize electronics:
"We remain the industry’s leader in the development of plastic electronics technology for commercial purposes and are continuing to actively advance this technology in our labs and in our manufacturing facility."
Plastic electronics technology has many economic, manufacturing, form factor and environmental benefits, assuring that it will replace silicon in a variety of devices in the future. The technology makes possible an amazingly thin, lightweight, more robust mobile form factor that the QUE illustrated – and remains unmatched in the marketplace of traditional silicon semiconductor glass-based display products.
