Currently the market is split between LCD tablet style computers and e-ink type displays. The pros and cons are well documented; striking visuals with fast refresh versus exceptionally low power consumption and high readability.

Now that Kindle-like displays are mainstream, the future is clearly for faster, richer and more flexible displays. I’m sure people will move to these new technologies soon enough. But it seems to me, a lot of people are making binary this-or-that predictions; it’s not a war. It seems to me the future is convergence; passive e-ink type displays literally sitting on top of bright active displays (passive transparent backgrounds).

Imagine, you go to a web page and it’s automatically transferred from the active display to the passive display. Nothing new, it’s already available in dual display devices.

It seems to me, the upshot of all this is that people are rediscovering the joys of reading. So it seems to me, given the price crash for the likes of Barnes & Noble, seems to me they deserve a second look.