Moving Closer to the Paperless Office

June 7th, 2011

In the concept reinvented category, Ricoh has created a complete solution around a new device called eQuill. According to the company, “…it functions as a digital clipboard… and eliminates paper-borne processes from the workflow, such as forms setup, photocopying, scanning, archiving, paper disposal and more.” The system comes with pre-populated forms, supports gesture and handwriting recognition, and signature capture/authentication based on biometric (stroke) input from the pen.

The eQuill will sell for under $500 with the workflow business-class service offered for $30/month. eQuill connects to its workflow services via WiFi or even 3G, enabling information capture “…relayed from the furthest endpoint to the central enterprise server ? and back again ? with minimal time and effort.” Key application targets include healthcare, document management, credit and insurance claim processing, home and business audits and inspections, civil and police reporting, and more vertical markets.

All this sounds vaguely familiar. Remember the first tablet era, sometimes known as the Pen PC, where the killer application was supposed to be handwriting recognition? It was kick-started with a revolutionary new device known as the AT&T GO, and a new pen-based operating system called PenPoint. It used gestures on the screen, flicks of the pen to control the device, and could translate your handwriting into text for the coming age of e-mail communication-and the pen and handwriting recognition were at the center of it all.

The Apple Newton, was of this vintage and Windows for Pen computing OS opened up a plethora of pen enabled mobile devices that launched in 1992 and beyond. But it was not to be, the pen tablet era died, or at least retreated to market niches far away from the mainstream.

Some say it was the inability to successfully deliver on the promise of handwriting recognition that killed the tablet revolution of the early 1990’s. For even with a 90% accuracy rate, you were still correcting ten words for every 100 of written input. This became an intolerable nuisance, even the source of lampooning from Gary Trudeau’s Doonesbury comic strip, and ultimately failed to win mainstream adoption.

Interestingly enough, Steve Jobs was around for both tablet revolutions, and was careful not to over hype, or over promise what the iPad would deliver. It was perhaps that first attempt that drove him and the company to achieve excellence and pinpoint focus on what the iPad would and could bring to users-and perhaps why the iPad to this day, doesn’t support a pen.

But the hope of bringing back the pen and handwriting recognition lives on, perhaps because the promise of the paperless office is so compelling. What may be a bit different this time around is the focus on vertical markets and not consumers.

Here’s how Takashi Totsuka, general manager, Ricoh EWS-Global (short for e-Writer Solutions a new division at the company): “Our mission is to address technology gaps in the digital workflow by replacing paper-based writing solutions with efficient digital alternatives. In so doing, we increase our customers’ productivity while reducing their paper costs and carbon footprint significantly. Given the ongoing demand for paperless workflow solutions, we expect this business to save our global customers billions-of-dollars in cost and to win Ricoh and its selling partners billions-of-dollars in revenue.”

It’s an interesting play. The popularity of EBRs and tablets combined with the workflow enhancements that digital capture makes for a compelling case for business and enterprise computing. Of course we thought that the last time around so there is nothing left to say but, it really is yesterday once more… – Steve Sechrist

SID Biz Conference Opens Display Week in LA

May 17th, 2011

News from the third annual SID Business Conference, which kicked off SID Display Week, revealed that China has beaten out the U.S. and EU as the number one region for flat panel TVs. China’s small displays (not large flat panel TVs) driving LCD panel growth and “capacity fungibile” LCD fabs put panel suppliers in a variable cost game, which actually hurts profits as capacity grows.

According to Jennifer Colegrove, vice president, Emerging Display Technologies for DisplaySearch, in her opening session presentation, China is destined to surpass North America and West Europe in 2011 and become the number 1 region for flat panel TV purchases. She underscored this point with the announcement that China has already overtaken the West in desktop monitor and “all-in-one” PC purchases, and, in 2010, was the number 3 region for notebook, tablet and netbooks. But in spite of all this demand, the country still has limited domestic display manufacturing and is highly dependent on imports.

Will China get the fabs it needs to meet all of that domestic demand? A presentation by Charles Annis, vice president, Manufacturing Research for DisplaySearch, on investment and technology trends showed that while 11 of the 17 newly announced a-Si LCD fabs are to be built in China, the region is characterized as much by its delays as it is the groundbreaking on new LCD facilities. He shared an interesting chart that tracks when the fab’s equipment was ordered and installed, and when mass production begins – with a “probability” assigned to each project. Five of those 11 projects in China had probability numbers ranging from 55% to 42%, and included the AUO FVO Kunshan 1 Factory slated for mother-glass size of 1950 x 2250 and BOE’s Hefei B5 project with a mother-glass size of 2200 x 2500. He characterized China’s FPD equipment spending as “unpredictable.”

Flat panel display makers are also coming to terms with the fact that TV growth is shifting to emerging markets – with an emphasis on the 30- to 39-inch size class that will dominate the TV category between now and 2014, mostly to serve the growing demand in the emerging space. But it’s not just TV sizes that are getting smaller. The real growth drivers in LCD production are no longer the +50-inch large area flat panel displays, whose manufacturing was optimized on ever-larger generation fabs (Gen 8.5 and even Gen 10 lines). The hot market spurring LCD growth today is in larger pixel densities (via LTPS) for smartphones and 10-inch class tablets.

Perhaps the most interesting presentation of the morning came from David Barnes of BizWitz, who enlightened the large gathering to the concept of “fungibility.” It’s the notion that as larger generation fabs come on line, they are able to serve an ever-growing variety of applications and markets (from large screen TVs to cell phones). For example, a gen 10 mother-glass from Sharp can produce 50-inch and larger LCD TVs, as well as 238 iPad panels (9.7-inch displays). While the flexibility may be good for the producer who can offer a wide product mix, Barnes said the bad news is that every new fab competes with every installed fab, because the capacity is fungible, so there is no “safe market.”

This expansion toward ever-larger fabs has changed the dynamics of producing LCDs, making their costs more variable. Barnes argued that, in essence, LCD producers have become material resellers. He provided an example that examined the cost of product for LG Display. From 2005 to 2010, more than two-thirds (68%) of their Total Cost of Product (including organizational cost, R&D, etc.) was in purchased materials, mostly related to area-based materials (BLUs, substrates, polarizer films). These variable costs became larger portions of the total product cost structure over this five-year period – so the more panels the company built, the more costs went up. Certainly, not what the LCD planners had in mind.

The result of all of this is that profitability becomes variable, and dependent, on manufacturers getting a price premium over the material they are reselling.

Barnes may be right. In a previous presentation, Charles Annis presented the infamous LCD crystal cycle that indicated that panel maker net profits reached 20% in 2004 and 2008, but haven’t reached anywhere near that number in subsequent upswings. In 2009 and 2010, profit margins were restricted to single digits in the 7% range. And for the past three quarters, manufacturers have been suffering negative margins. LCD fabs have morphed into an industry that is essentially buying components and reselling them – and not getting a lot of leverage on their “technology,” Barnes concluded.

No doubt this analysis should serve as a wake-up call to display manufacturers and suppliers alike. There’s much more to report from the Business Conference and the SID Display Week that starts in earnest today, so be sure to catch the upcoming issue of the Large Display Report for the full show coverage. –Steve Sechrist

Tablet 2.0: The Line is Blurring Between EBR’s and Tablets

November 2nd, 2010

In a nod to colleague Aldo Cugnini’s story on Samsung’s 7-inch Galaxy tablet yesterday, there’s another 7-inch color beauty aiming at the same iPad market from a different direction. Like Tennyson’s narrative Charge of the Light Brigade, the cannon volleys are coming now from the electronic book reader (EBR) camp. The new “NookColor” offering from Barnes & Nobel (B&N) is a 7-inch color EBR extension to its line of Nooks that has more in common with a traditional tablet than the Amazon Kindle or other traditional EBRs.

eBooks at the Tipping Point Over Hard-cover

August 3rd, 2010

OK it’s the digital age and we’ve been told time and again that now—everything is different. Sometimes this is hard getting used to, particularly when we are talking about the digital age coming up against the most important invention of the modern era—printed books of the Gutenberg type.

Steve Sechrist
Senior Analyst and Editor

But the world has indeed changed (again) this past July when Amazon.com (one of the top book sellers) reported that Q2 2010 sales of electronic books for the Kindle, Amazon’s e-reader, outnumber sales of hardcover books for the first time. Then on Sunday, the company announced its first “Million copy e-book seller Stieg Larsson’s The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo making the book a charter member of the “Kindle Million Club” with other top sellers, closing in on that number fast.

The details of the Amazon announcement said in Q2, the company sold 143 e-books for every 100 hard-covers, and the trend is growing. Amazon reported in the month of June (Summer reading month) that number jumped to 180 to 100 e-books to hard-cover editions. Add to this the fact that e-books only represent 630K vs. the untold millions of hard-cover books available for purchase, and you may agree with Amazon CEO Jeffrey Bezos. He calls this “…astonishing when you consider that we’ve been selling hardcover books for 15 years, and Kindle books for 33 months.”

Are LCDs Poised to Break Into the EBR Market?

May 11th, 2010

The continuing maturity of the EBR (e-Book Reader) device market is leading to some interesting new products of late. One is from a Boca Raton, FL based OEM / ODM provider called Paradigm Shift (PS). Their product didn’t turn to the traditional 6-inch electrophoretic (EPH) display from E Ink for its display in this new $129.95 EBR device. They instead use a modified, low cost 5-inch color TFT LCD the company believes delivers a “good enough” b/w image to allow for relaxed-eye text reading, plus provides all the benefits of LCDs (color video display speeds etc.), at price points that could go as low as sub-$99 (even sub-$69) as early as Christmas 2010.

Steve Sechrist
Senior Analyst and Editor

One source based in China and the US, who asked to remain anonymous for now, recently told Insight Media to expect the market to be flooded with LCD-based EBRs with up to ten different models, some of which will include the open source Android operating system (and access to all the new Android Apps), plus Adobe DRM technology to unlock the digital content.

To get there, ODM’s will use low cost, small TFT LCDs manufactured in very high quantities (compared to EPH display quantities) and enhanced viewing films to reduce the eye strain in b/w reading mode. “This is the only way to get the prices down to those levels…” our source told us.

The proposed Android-based device expands the boundaries of traditional EBRs much like the Apple iPad, making use of the LCD’s vivid color and video display speed as an MID (mobile internet device) that just happens to be a “good enough” EBR. But it’s that distinction-“making the display look like e-Paper” that distinguishes the EPH- from the LCD-based displays, according to a recent conversation with E Ink’s VP and resident display guru, Sriram Peruvemba. He told us that ultimately the discussion is about use and functionality. “You can use a cell phone as an EBR device if you want. But from a hardware perspective, (that is “non-content”) the primary value of a dedicated EBR is in the display.” By that we surmise, the e-Paper look and feel.

For the heavy lifting, i.e., textbook readers in education, “good enough” LCD displays may just not cut it. Peruvemba also made the point that EBRs could be selling at sub $100 today. Already retail prices have reached the $150 range (B&N new Kobo Reader) and using a subscription-based model or subsidized HW model, (give away the printer /make money on the ink) OEMs could sell devices for sub-$100-and conceivably even give away EPH-based devices free like cell phones in the wireless market.

So get ready as the EBR market is poised to morph into something along the lines of netbooks (vs. laptops) with new, low cost LCD-based MID tablet readers selling at these very low price points by Christmas. And like the netbooks that came before, the impact of low cost products in this space is likely to place downward price pressure on the entrenched technology, while significantly growing market size at the same time. We’ll see. – Steve Sechrist

Ed. Note: Look for an expanded version of this story in our May issue of Mobile Display Report due May-15.

 

HTML5 and The Advent of Video Distribution

April 6th, 2010

The Wall Street Journal (WSJ) ran a short story about Cambridge, MA based Brightcove getting a next round of funding (now totaling $99M from VCs.) The leading web based video distribution company needed to re-fill the coffers as they seek to complete their infrastructure build-out, in its effort to become the video “utility” for the next decade.

 

Steve Sechrist
Senior Analyst and Editor

In the article, the point was made by investment partner Jim Breyer (Accel) that, “video as a ‘data-type’ is still in its infancy.” And, the fact that the company still manages to attract this side of $100M in a down economy speaks volumes of the disruption potential this particular “data-type” can have on the economy.

Consider the voice / music transition from analog to “data-type” not too long ago-and it’s not much of a stretch to see how everything is up for grabs as the more bandwidth intense video goes through a similar metamorphosis.

However, it is not just more of the same for Brightcove, in the form of e-commerce video initiatives, training and webinar video that has been the bread and butter for this start-up. One look at the Brightcove web site shows the direction the company and the industry is heading. In its tag line: “Publish, Distribute and Monetize Web video…for the iPad and other Apple Devices.” Brightcove seems to be betting on the video (data-type) capabilities of the new “must-have” device to drive adoption to its video platform and suite of solutions. With 100K app downloads in the first weekend iPad started selling, that is not a bad direction to move.

But we think this is simply the low hanging fruit for Brightcove as this initiative is part of a larger trend in the industry – video to any display, any time. To help get there the company is using HTML5 (that goes beyond plug-in based players like Flash and JavaFX.) The HTML5 standard, which is still in draft mode, looks to seamlessly bring video to any display – from small handheld’s to your 50-inch living room flat screen, all via the web.

The video data-type is here and changing everything and companies like Brightcove are developing the tools to auto detect, and dynamically switch between video players that optimize video for the display. But the competition is heating up. The WSJ also reported that Google’s recent purchase of Brightcove rival Episodic Inc., shows more than just casual interest in this space by the web services giant. The company bills itself as “The Most Complete Online Video Platform” for video content on the web. Another well-funded ($20M) start-up is Mountain View, CA based Ooyala (“cradle” in Telugu a So. Indian language) with its own iPad and secure video solutions for web video distribution.

So get ready for everything to change again as we are privy to witness the universe move as cable and ADSL Internet service providers see their traditional video services (cable TV et al.) become cannibalized through access to the web backbone. Like the caterpillar that transforms into the butterfly, they are undergoing their own metamorphosis willingly or not. – Steve Sechrist

 

AUO Delays Vendor Delivery of EPH 6″ and 9″ Modules

March 16th, 2010

When we heard that AUO’s SiPix (Hsinchu, Taiwan) had announced a delay delivering its mass produced 6- and 9-inch electrophoretic panel (EPH) modules to makers of e-book readers (EBRs), we decided to look a little deeper to understand why. We checked in with SiPix’s business development director Bryan Chan to learn more.

Steve Sechrist
Senior Analyst and Editor

According to the translation of the Chinese language Times article, SiPix is continuing to supply the much smaller RFID tag sized EPH displays for that market, but is apparently having some problems scaling up to larger 6- and 9-inch sized displays. According to the article, the issue relates to maintaining the static or fixed display state, which is a key characteristic of EPH technology.

Chan provided a “summary” of the translated SiPixreport saying:

1. Senior VP of AUO’s Consumer Products Business Unit, Dr. CT Liu, has now moved into the CEO position at SiPix full-time
2. AUO has begun mass production of the 6- and 9-inch display products with 60% of the volume going to 6-inch models
3. The bi-stability of the material (the ability to hold an image without power) was at issue and that the displays did not hold an image. It states that there was a material change to address this and that requalification is happening in Q2.

Chan told us he couldn’t officially comment on this last point, and that we should “go with the translated news story.” He did emphasize that mass production of the display modules has not been affected, just the delivery of product to both BenQ and Acer while the “new material” goes through a final round of qualification by those vendors.

While the requalification of the 6″ and 9″ panels is set to occur in Q2, Chan said they are still on track to hit their 2M to 2.5M displays this year with 60% going to the 6-inch modules and the other 40% of production shared between the 9-inch modules and the much smaller RFID / Shelf label products.

There is probably more going on here than meets the eye. Loss of bi-stability can be caused by problems with the front plane or backplane. And, to say the requalification will not impact mass production of the display modules really means for customers other than BenQ or Acer. By having to requalify the panel, that will impact shipments to these customers and delay the introduction of EBR products in the market. However, it does appear that the problem showed up early in the production ramp, so it may be possible to make up for this delay as the year rolls on. At least this seems like a plausible explanation for a somewhat tangled story.

In previous conversations with the company, we do know that many months ago, there were issues with wave forms and update speeds, but the bi-stability of the material was never at issue–and always considered one of the display technology’s strengths. In fact, here’s a rundown of some of the strengths of the SiPix technology, as reported in our 2009 Insight Media EBR Report:

• Very rugged, due to rib microcup structure, so it is pressure insensitive
• Slightly darker black state than E Ink, so it has higher contrast
• Low-level multiplexing, otherwise parasitic crosstalk for smaller pixels
• Can fill cavities with separate colors to produce full color as additive or subtractive mode for high brightness
• Compatible with R2R manufacturing, for lower cost
• Low cost – suitable for price-sensitive applications, including smart cards and USB and Flash drive memories.

If anything, the news helps to underscore the difficulty that display makers face in moving from prototype display to full (mass) production with acceptable yields that create profit for the company. (Chan would not comment on specific numbers, he did say “…the yields are pretty good.”) And even while this display module delay for the SiPix vendors may help bolster the E Ink dominance in the space in the short term (as well as help keep their Vizplex prices high) long term, a second supplier of EPH display material will only help benefit the entire EBR market.