Okay so we’re concerned about the impact blogging, citizen journalism, podcasting, other technology developments and disaggregation of media titles.
We’re also facing the arrival of electronic portable newspapers. Not today or tomorrow but very soon. The first sample was demonstrated a few weeks ago in Japan. Now Intel has invested in the company at the heart of the technology.
Electronic newspapers have been a holy grail for many years. Now, E Ink is close. Their “e paper” panels are paper thin, light and low in power consumption. Already publishers are lining up to embrace the technology.
Seiko has signed on to commercialise the world’s first paper display watch.
In March at the Expo 2005 electronics trade show in Tokyo, Toppan Printing and NEC used E Ink’s technology to create a 2.4 metre by 2.4 metre newspaper displaying updated feeds of Japan’s Yomiuri Shimbun broadsheet newspaper. The screen was wafer thin.
The goal is a light weight portable wireless enabled device which receives updates to your live newspaper – with video as well as still images.
Look at the horizon and then look beyond for technology changes which will impact our businesses and then remind yourself that change is inevitable and good.
Electronic paper has been the holy grail for a while now. If you think the internet is a revolution for newspapers, wait till e-paper becomes viable. One of the main reasons people still buy newspapers and books is because the like to have something they can easily read on the bus or in the dunny! With e-paper they can have a normal newspaper or book they can take with them, but automatically download the news from wherever they are.