What Does Electronic Paper Mean For Blogs?

Posted on November 10, 2005

A company named E-ink has been working on a technology for several years that prints electronic ink onto a sheet of plastic film which is laminated to a layer of circuitry. The electronic ink is easier to read than a computer screen and the plastic film it is printed on can be rolled up and carried around and updated like a webpage.

E-paper is starting to move into the marketplace in the form of new devices like thin digital clocksand potentially annoying signs that update themselves. Fortunately, more impressive devices are coming that could help mobile Internet use soar. These include highly portable displays with screens that can be rolled up.

One of the small mobile devices being discussed is a gadget with a 5-inch display. Unfortunately, the long awaited electronic newspaper may still be a few years. But when it arrives it may be used to read blogs and not just the morning paper.

Ted Schadler, an analyst at market research group Forrester, told the New Zealand Herald, "If you would lock consumers into just one news service, they will not find it interesting. Users might want to read a blog, a competitor, a magazine, a book -- not just the Financial Times, the Herald Tribune, the New York Times."

So electronic paper should be very good for blogs when it finally arrives.