AUO To Ship E-Papers Next Year

AU Optronics (AUO) president and CEO LJ Chen did mention in passing that the company will be collaborating with e-book vendors in Japan and China, aiming to begin shipping e-paper to them sometime in the second half of this year. Generally, these e-papers from AUO tend to range from six to nine inches, although the company has the expertise to offer 14-inch e-paper upon clients’ requests. Currently in plain old black and white, expect to see AUO introduce color e-paper products as early as next year, followed by mass production a couple or three years later. According to Chen, it will take around half a decade more for the technology to mature, so there’s no reason to hold off the Amazon Kindle 2 purchase just yet.