Qualcomm talks about future of Mirasol based screen technology

She is soooo wrong about e-readers continuing as a separate
category. Not only will e-readers and tablets merge, but also e-readers,
tablets and phones will merge.

With all due deference to the name of this site, but we –
and apparently Qualcomm – need to sit up and think about the change just round
the corner, often called “convergence”. Why would anyone want a
dedicated e-reader to add to the clutter they carry around, when in 6 months or
so there will be single devices you can (1) read books and magazines on, (2)
make phone calls on, (3) type and dictate into, (4) number crunch on, (5) watch
films on, and (6) play games on?  All on
a power-sipping screen – be it Mirasol, Pixel Chi, Liquavista or An Other – and
all on a chip whose power demand is adjustable to the task in hand (NVIDIA Kal
El most likely).  And the likelihood is,
as prices fall, you will be able to do all that for a price which is not much
more than an e-reader today, and will certainly  be less than the cost of buying separate
devices to do these tasks.

Apple, Microsoft and Motorola “get that”, and are
coming up with operating systems/devices which combine small screen
portability, for when you are on the move, with a large screen “ecosystem”
for when you are at base (be that office or home or a relative or friend’s house).

Amazon “get that”, and have come up with a device tailored
to precisely complement your phone’s shortcomings. So you are down to two
devices not three. (Though I agree, they missed a trick. It’s not the ideal
e-reader given the lack of a low power screen.)

Barnes and Noble “get that” and have their Nook
which is consistently described as “far more than just a reader”?

So what analysis were Qualcomm using when they decided e-readers
will continue as a separate category and targeted Mirasol’s initial foray to the
small-screen e-reader market?

Don’t they realise that in Mirasol they have precisely the “disruptive
technology” that would drive such convergence. Well, apparently they don’t
realise if they are still predicting the future on past trends, which just
doesn’t work at this stage in the game.

Also, it’s pretty close to typical big-company arrogance to
assume the customer will like our product the way we expect them to. Yes the first
iteration of the Mirasol e-reader device may handily fit into the average breast
pocket, but haven’t Qualcomm noticed that most of us are not that inconvenienced
by the typical book or magazine, which dead-tree-product manufacturers
consistently bring out in dimensions larger than the average breast pocket – possibly
because most of us get on with them better that size?

And finally, if I were a manufacturer, I would be wary of “getting
into bed” with Qualcomm/Mirasol after viewing this. Yes, I’m sure there
were things to be said on both sides, but, reading between the lines, Ms. Goodman
comes very close to saying that they pulled the rug out from under whoever they
were doing business with over the first Mirasol e-reader (PocketBook, according
to widespread rumour). And, incidentally, in so doing they not only missed the
opportunity to bring Mirasol technology to market at a time when it would have
been more appropriate to have it in a dedicated e-reader device, but they also missed
the opportunity to get a revenue stream flowing to help develop the technology and
start moving on to larger screen sizes and better (i.e. Retina-Display-challenging)
resolution far earlier.

If they had done that, they would really have stolen a march
on the competition and satisfied many an expectant purchaser just waiting to
reach for their wallet on the strength of CES reports and YouTube videos.

As it is, now, the happy consumer will probably be advised
to wait until late November, by when we will probably be able to see if we
prefer the look of Mirasol or Pixel Chi and/or Liquavista.

Very good points, I agree.  It would be interesting to know the full story.  I find it strange that a component supplier to a product manufacturer has the authority to cancel the product.  At first they were saying they were not happy with the quality of their display.  Now they are saying their display was perfectly adequate and the problem was with the quality of the ereader it was going into.  …and all we get is the standard party line that there will be an available ereader product before the end of the year (I assume they mean 2011).