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The technology is there, but E Ink (the company) is steadfastly refusing to lower prices because they believe there's a market for this. Now go to Alibaba and f

The technology is there, but E Ink (the company) is steadfastly refusing to lower prices because they believe there's a market for this. Now go to Alibaba and find that you can get a flexible, full-color OLED sheet for the same price as a given size E Ink panel. Go on eBay and buy an older NOOK device (they all ran Android) for $20, tape it to your wall, and point at your web page of choice.

TaylorAlexander 6y ago
A great example of patents strangling innovation. If anyone has more concrete details on the way this company is holding back this technology I’d love to read details. Thanks!
- okatzzz2 6y ago
  What makes you think it’s to do with patents? Maybe there’s just insufficient demand.
  - vanderZwan 6y ago
    There is insufficient demand for high priced e-ink screens. Which probably comes down to supply, which probably comes down to patents
  - TaylorAlexander 6y ago
    I am responding to a parent comment that suggested there was more demand but the company was holding it back. If that is true the only way one company could hold it back is patents.
    - okatzzz2 6y ago
      No. They could just choose not to sell at a lower price. In a frictionless market someone else would step in and sell the good at the lower price, but in reality if not enough people want it then that third party won’t bother.
- Godel_unicode 6y ago
  The pertinent patents were filed in '96, so it's almost certainly not that?
  - akiselev 6y ago
    Last I checked there were over a dozen patents from the 1990s to the 2010s that cover everything from manufacturing to software. IIRC the most important patents actually cover some algorithms on the display controller that won't be public domain until the mid to late 2020s.
    - namibj 6y ago
      Europe doesn't have software patents. I think non-US space would be enough of a market?
      - vanderZwan 6y ago
        IIRC it gets a bit messy once we start talking about hardware implementations of algorithms. I mean, is an electronics circuit that essentially implements an algorithm still a software patent?
        namibj 6y ago
        Why does it need to be a hardware implementation?
        vanderZwan 6y ago
        ... because we're talking about software patents?
- amenod 6y ago
  The irony is that they are probably limiting their profit too. With lower prices the number of applications would skyrocket and they would get much bigger income. The only reason I can think of is that scaling the production would be difficult for some reason?
  - deleted 6y ago
    [deleted]
  - areactnativedev 6y ago
    From skimming through their website, it looks like they target business applications with bigger displays (Health Care, Transportation, Industrial & Packaging, ...) which I would assume are high margin contracts. So maybe another reason would be that offering lower prices for big displays would reduce profits from these business clients more than it would increase profits from the additional low-margin mass-market volumes.
  - GordonS 6y ago
    If large screens with a decent refresh rate were readily available and competitively priced, I imagine they'd be a huge hit with devs - I know I'd love one.
- crimsonalucard 6y ago
  I don't think the answer is that simple. Would the initial innovation even be worth pursuing if not the existence of patents? Hard to say. At the very lease we do know that in a decade there's no more strangleholds.
luka-birsa 6y ago
They would drop the price if there was a large enough volume play behind it. Do you think they don't want to make money?
Thorentis 6y ago
This is why I believe patent laws (and copyright laws, but that's another story) are completely broken. Innovation is being stilfled because the world is addicted to profit, and not just profit, but easy profit. Gone are the days when making a superior product was the only way to get ahead, no. Companies want exclusive monopolies over anything and everything they create. An engineer just has to draw squiggle on a whiteboard and that becomes the IP of the company they work for. The patent system needs a complete overhaul.
christopoulos 6y ago
Do you have an example of such OLED sheet that you can recommend?

TaylorAlexander 6y ago

A great example of patents strangling innovation. If anyone has more concrete details on the way this company is holding back this technology I’d love to read details. Thanks!

okatzzz2 6y ago
What makes you think it’s to do with patents? Maybe there’s just insufficient demand.
- vanderZwan 6y ago
  There is insufficient demand for high priced e-ink screens. Which probably comes down to supply, which probably comes down to patents
- TaylorAlexander 6y ago
  I am responding to a parent comment that suggested there was more demand but the company was holding it back. If that is true the only way one company could hold it back is patents.
  - okatzzz2 6y ago
    No. They could just choose not to sell at a lower price. In a frictionless market someone else would step in and sell the good at the lower price, but in reality if not enough people want it then that third party won’t bother.
Godel_unicode 6y ago
The pertinent patents were filed in '96, so it's almost certainly not that?
- akiselev 6y ago
  Last I checked there were over a dozen patents from the 1990s to the 2010s that cover everything from manufacturing to software. IIRC the most important patents actually cover some algorithms on the display controller that won't be public domain until the mid to late 2020s.
  - namibj 6y ago
    Europe doesn't have software patents. I think non-US space would be enough of a market?
    - vanderZwan 6y ago
      IIRC it gets a bit messy once we start talking about hardware implementations of algorithms. I mean, is an electronics circuit that essentially implements an algorithm still a software patent?
      - namibj 6y ago
        Why does it need to be a hardware implementation?
        vanderZwan 6y ago
        ... because we're talking about software patents?
amenod 6y ago
The irony is that they are probably limiting their profit too. With lower prices the number of applications would skyrocket and they would get much bigger income. The only reason I can think of is that scaling the production would be difficult for some reason?
- deleted 6y ago
  [deleted]
- areactnativedev 6y ago
  From skimming through their website, it looks like they target business applications with bigger displays (Health Care, Transportation, Industrial & Packaging, ...) which I would assume are high margin contracts. So maybe another reason would be that offering lower prices for big displays would reduce profits from these business clients more than it would increase profits from the additional low-margin mass-market volumes.
- GordonS 6y ago
  If large screens with a decent refresh rate were readily available and competitively priced, I imagine they'd be a huge hit with devs - I know I'd love one.
crimsonalucard 6y ago
I don't think the answer is that simple. Would the initial innovation even be worth pursuing if not the existence of patents? Hard to say. At the very lease we do know that in a decade there's no more strangleholds.

luka-birsa 6y ago

They would drop the price if there was a large enough volume play behind it. Do you think they don't want to make money?

Thorentis 6y ago

This is why I believe patent laws (and copyright laws, but that's another story) are completely broken. Innovation is being stilfled because the world is addicted to profit, and not just profit, but easy profit. Gone are the days when making a superior product was the only way to get ahead, no. Companies want exclusive monopolies over anything and everything they create. An engineer just has to draw squiggle on a whiteboard and that becomes the IP of the company they work for. The patent system needs a complete overhaul.

christopoulos 6y ago

Do you have an example of such OLED sheet that you can recommend?