E-ink or Electronic print display technology was developed at Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s Media labs in late 1990s as a way to invent a reading device which would hold several thousand books as digital copies and enable readers to read for long periods of time without strain on their eyes.
Since the 1990s, the e-ink technology has been improved and refined to such an extent that several devices, most prominently Amazon’s kindle have enjoyed tremendous sales success in the digital books marketplace.
The two primary benefits of E-ink technology are that it looks and appears very much like ordinary paper without the strain on the eyes associated with traditional computer screens based on LCD technology, and secondly, its battery life can last more than a week compared to a few hours for tablets. Looking at computer monitors has been likened to glaring directly at a flash light for long periods of time which may cause great harm to eyes and nervous system over a period of years.
This is especially true in the case of kids whose nervous system and more specifically optic nerves are still in their developmental stage.
However, corporations like Apple, Microsoft, Barnes and Noble who have invested a lot of their resources in LCD/LED technology are now pushing the technological envelope to make LCD based tablets for reading digital books more readable under bright light and sunlight, incorporating longer battery life so that the reading experience is not curtailed by frequent need to recharge, and conducting sophisticated publicity campaigns to make sure buyers are attracted to LCD tablet’s multifunctional attributes such as surfing the web, reading the books and e-mails, and enjoying fast rich color experience which is absent in E-readers.
Recently E-ink has introduced color technology which removes its monochrome handicap against LCD based tablets.
If E-readers market themselves as eye and health friendly devices, specially to parents and kids, they will stay in the game for a long time.