Now that Polymer Vision’s new owner – Wistron – has been confirmed, it’s time for some speculation about what they might have up their sleeve with the folding e-paper technology. Wistron’s Brian Chong, chief of product planning, has confirmed that the company intends to release a 5- to 6-inch device using Polymer Vision tech in 2010. From the sound of it, it’s very much alike the prototype device Polymer Vision themselves were showing round before their sale.
The unnamed Asian company which acquired ailing foldable e-paper startup Polymer Vision has been outed as Wistron. Polymer Vision declared bankruptcy back in July, and were acquired in early September; the deal is now known to have been worth €12m ($17.75m). Integration of the two companies actually began taking place last month, but right now it’s still unclear whether the Polymer Vision brand will be maintained.
Polymer Vision has reportedly been sold to an unnamed Asian company, who will restart the firms development of foldable e-ink displays. Having declared bankruptcy back in July, Polymer Vision – whose first device, the Readius, was to be a cellphone with a large fold-out e-ink display – will now retain around 80-percent of its staff after new contracts were signed this week.
Polymer Vision, the company responsible for the Readius e-paper device first promised for the fall of 2008, has folded. The company had most recently announced that it required further funding in order to begin production; however it could not secure that in sufficient time, and called in receivers on July 7th.
From a concept unlikely to ever launch, to a product we should’ve seen on the market already: Polymer Vision’s Readius was promised for fall of 2008, but months later there’s no sign of the innovative folding e-paper device. According to CEO Karl McGoldrick, that’s because the company needs more money; he’s currently in talks with investors to refinance both the first Readius device and the in-development Readius 2.
Rollable screens remain slightly out of our reach when it comes to commercial products, but that doesn’t stop concept artists from reaching for them for ultra-portable devices. The work of an unnamed Korean company, this MID concept uses an “Asian Scroll” theme with a pull-out “foldable glass monitor” touchscreen.
Polymer Vision have confirmed that they’re on schedule to launch their Readius cellular-connected ebook reader in the Fall. In a post to their new company blog, CEO Karl McGoldrick also announced the launch of www.readius.com, the media and content portal that Readius users will be able to access free and subscription-based information.
Polymer Vision, a Dutch company unveiled the first mobile phone in the world that uses a foldout display. Readius, the name of this phone has large 5-inch display, which is plenty for viewing email, podcast, documents file, and Internet browsing on the go.
Rollable displays have been something of a mainstay of science fiction and futurology articles, perhaps because there’s something undeniably cool about taking a product we’re all familiar with – in this case paper – and giving it a super-sexy high-tech makeover. However while there have been numerous prototypes shown at trade fairs and expos, up until now our e-books have been resolutely stiff. Well, that’s due to change thanks to Polymer Vision and their READIUS display. SlashGear was there to have a good play, as well as take these exclusive photos.
Fitting a five-inch monochrome screen into svelte chassis takes some doing, and it’s been a three year labour of love for the Eindhoven-based company. Now they’re ramping up production at a new UK plant, using Thin Film Transistor equipment which gives the high-contrast, high-reflectivity display an e-book friendly 16-levels of grey. Currently screen refreshes take 1-2 seconds, meaning it’s not really suitable for video, but the super-clear text and the fact that it only consumes power when changing the display, not for maintaining an image, makes it ideal for a dynamically updated text-news source.
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