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Comment by Animats | Hacker News Reader

If Apple introduced this, it would be called "disruptive" and "revolutionary". From Sony, it's "weird".

eInk still costs far too much per unit area. You can buy wall sign sized eInk displays, but they'll cost much more than an LCD TV panel of the same size. 32" diagonal display, $3,599.[1] Compare 32 inch color LCD TVs for $200 at WalMart. Despite talk of cheap "electronic paper" displays, the eInk people never delivered on cost.

[1] https://www.visionect.com/product/visionect-development-kit-...

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I think your reaction is a little knee-jerk. "Weird Sony" has been an in-joke for some time, here's Penny Arcade making fun of it in 2004: https://www.penny-arcade.com/comic/2004/12/13/the-sony-syndr... (when they didn't even like Apple yet). Sony has a noted history of these strange, slightly off-beat products that always sound more useful on paper than they turn out to be in practice.

Fun fact: Steve Jobs was very much inspired by Sony's innovations.

Another 'fun' fact. Sony is the only big company that is going to support Sailfish OS on their smartphones later this year.

They are not afraid to try new stuff.

>> eInk still costs far too much per unit area.

Any idea what those ballpark figures look like today?

The E ink product you linked is a dev kit targeting a niche market, not a general CE product manufactured in the millions and benefiting from economies of scale...I'm simply not seeing the relevance of the comparison.

eInk doesn't publicly release prices. It's a "contact sales" kind of business.

Visionect's 9.7" e-ink sign, which is their version of a digital picture frame, costs $400.[1] That's a product, not a development kit. A comparable LCD digital picture frame from WalMart costs $70. Color, too.

[1] https://www.visionect.com/product/visionect-sign-9-7/

Hi there, Ursa from Visionect here. Just a slight clarification: the 9.7 Sign is not a consumer product in the sense of a digital picture frame. Rather it is a sort-of development kit, a blank canvas device on which companies can develop their own products. So geared towards professional use. Plus, the battery lasts four months;)

Large scale e-ink always seemed like a good medium for digital signage because it works in bright light.

A friend's wife works at the United Nations, and a couple years ago I got invited to have a drink at their bar, I was really looking forward to seeing the e-ink wall display (made of tiles of smaller screens - not an entire surface) but unfortunately it was broken so I never got to see what it was like in person :( https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pnb4tFK4I90

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