AUO

Bookeen are a France-based e-reader maker, that currently offer two models (the Cybook Gen3, available now for 350$, and the Opus, available now for 215$) and are set to release a new one, the Orizon. Michael Dahan, Bookeen's co-founder and CEO has agreed to answer a few questions. 

Q: Michael - First of all, thank you for this interview. Currently you are offering two e-readers, the Cybook Gen3 and the Cybook Opus. Can you tell us how are the sales of these models?

The sales are very good. We are sold mainly throughout Europe and have started more actively in the US. We evaluate our market share in Europe to be 25-30%. We are sold in large retail networks like FNAC or Mediamarket and have a strong presence in Germany, France, Italy, Spain and the Netherlands. UK remains a stronghold for us, but we plan to crack it.

The Cybook Gen3 has started its carrier in October 2007, two weeks before Kindle. Since this date, It has known several enhancements through different versions. It has been released in its last version (Gold Edition) last September. It’s a 6" E ink screen with 8-levels grayscale 170dpi/1GB/Audio/SD card slot/3 weeks battery lifetime with native support of Adobe EPUB/PDF. In this version it is delivered with a protective cover, USB charger and earphones.

The Cybook Opus is its little brother and has been launched in August 2009. It’s a 5" E ink screen with an amazing 200dpi resolution, 1GB of storage memory with possibility of extension with microSD. It has an accelerometer which enables you to switch from portrait to landscape with a flip. It is delivered with an acclaimed protective sleeve.

China's Hanwang will start to use e-paper displays from AUO - in face AUO has started shipping 9" panels already. The products will hit the market in 2010. Hanwang aims to ship over 500,000 e-readers in 2009, and over 1 million in 2010.

Hanwang currently uses 5" E Ink panels.

Via digitimes

3 Taiwanese companies are planning to release color e-paper in 2010.

PVI (who recently bought E Ink) will start making color e-paper in the second half of 2010. They also plan to ramp-up their 6" and 9.7" flexible e-paper in the first half of 2010.

AUO plans to offer flexible e-paper samples in 2010, but estimates that the market shrare of color and flexible e-paper will be low in 2010. 

Delta expects to launch color e-paper panels in the second quarter of 2010.

via Digitimes

AUO estimates the worldwide shipments of e-readers will top 10 million units in 2010. AUO hopes to ship 1-2 million e-paper panels in 2010.

via digitimes

AUO says they will release a 6" flexible e-paper next year (samples, anyway, with volume production to start afterwards). They are also showing a 20" e-paper module, which they say is the world's largest e-paper which is "ready for production". 

The 6" flexible e-paper is using Sipix's (owned by AUO) Microcup technology. It is made on a plastic substrate, and can be repeatedly bended. The curved radius reaches 100mm, it features 16 gray levels, 9:1 high contrast ratio and a reflectance of 33%. It consumes power only when the image is updated.

The 20" panel is very power efficient, requiring less thatn 2W. It also have 16 levels of gray.

Via E-Ink-Info

AUO's CTO (C.T. Liu), who's also SiPix's CEO is talking about E-Readers - when will the display prices come down, what people want out of their readers, and more.

AUO are working towards ePaper displays which will compete with E Ink, which is now used in virtually all e-readers.

AUO says that its e-paper displays will be better, and much cheaper than available today, using its large-size production capabilities. In fact, they expect e-book readers prices to fall in half within two years - and they see a 100$ reader by 2011.

AUO also expects to supply both Sony and Amazon with ePaper displays.

Via Engadet