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A comment on E Ink smart screen puts a newspaper on your wall. Parent comment

Re:E Ink smart screen puts a newspaper on your wall by _ph_ on Friday April 10, 2020 @08:42AM (#22832434)
Well, obviously, this price is extremely high. But the question is: why is it so high? Is there anything in the technology which makes it even more expensive than OLED technology, or is this a problem with the company, which kind of seems to work hard at preventing the technology to enter the mass market and become cheaper?

And of course, I am very aware of the downsides of e-ink. Readers like the kindle are pushing as far as it is possible with respect for interactivity. But for all kind of mostly static displays, it would shine.

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Re:E Ink smart screen puts a newspaper on your wall by magduf on Friday April 10, 2020 @09:36AM (#22832840)
Because the volumes are low. It's the same with any technology. High volumes = low cost, and vice-versa. When the manufacturing is geared up to produce enormous volumes and there's a bunch of competitors, the final product cost will be very low. When there's only one manufacturer and it's a niche product and there's very low demand, the cost is very high.
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Re:E Ink smart screen puts a newspaper on your wall by _ph_ on Friday April 10, 2020 @09:49AM (#22832950)
Right, I just wonder why no one tried hard to break that cycle and whenever I read about e-ink technology, I get the impression that the company behind it is not making it easy to create products with their technology.
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Re:E Ink smart screen puts a newspaper on your wall by cs02rm0 on Friday April 10, 2020 @02:27PM (#22835932)
One suggestion I've seen is patents.

Unfortunately, I think it's killing a whole corner of the market. I'd happily pay $500 for one of these but not $2k. At that price I'd struggle to not use something that has more colours and a higher refresh rate.

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