Sony and E Ink Holdings formed a joint venture late last year and is it called Linfiny. The new company is set to optimize the design and R&D capability at Sony Semiconductor Solutions and backend module production capacity at EIH to develop e-paper products and solutions to enable clients to shorten time-to-market for new e-paper products, E-Ink Frank Ko said. Good e-Reader has learned exact what this venture is doing and what type of products they are working on
Linfiny includes directors assigned by E Ink and Sony. Terushi Shimizu, the Representative Director and the President of Sony Semiconductor Solutions, serve as the board member and .Johnson Lee, the President of E Ink Holdings the Chairman.
Johnson Lee the Chairman told Good e-Reader in an exclusive interview that “We are very excited about our partnership with Sony through the joint venture, Linfiny. The team includes design engineers from Sony, who have experience making some of the best hardware devices in the world. Linfiny has designed E Ink based eNote products for Sony and Fujitsu. Linfiny is currently focused on eNote applications and works with a variety of customers referred to them through the E Ink or Sony sales channels. Check Eink.com to complete the information request form. Completing the form with a brief note regarding interest in Linfiny will route the request to the appropriate party.”
So it looks like the Sony Digital Paper DPT-CP1 and the Digital Paper RP1 were the first commercially viable products that were born with the venture. It is currently unknown what new product Fujitsu is currently developing, but they do have e-paper experience. In 2010 they developed an early form of color e-paper and used this tech to release the Flepia, which was only available in Japan. Fujitsu might be planning on a professional digital note taker or a some sort of laptop hybrid with an e-ink screen.
I have also heard rumors that there are some new dual screen E Ink products in the works, similar to the eonebook and the dual screen concept was was displayed at SID Display Week a couple of years ago. E ink would not comment on ongoing products by other companies, which did confirm that there are others in the works.
Sometime in 2019 there will be three new products developed by Linfiny and brought to the market from companies in China, Europe and the US.
Michael Kozlowski is the editor-in-chief at Good e-Reader and has written about audiobooks and e-readers for the past fifteen years. Newspapers and websites such as the CBC, CNET, Engadget, Huffington Post and the New York Times have picked up his articles. He Lives in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada.
