E-ink is already pretty expensive as a display technology, no way anyone can make a decent e-reader that you can "throw in a pocket and not worry about damaging" for £8. Maybe if it has like 8 "pixels" total.
> E-ink is already pretty expensive as a display technology
but why? is it because of patents? Shouldn't this technology get cheaper with time?
Apparently so. I recall this explanation back from 2021:
https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=26143779
Supposedly, a core patent for the technology expired a year ago:
https://old.reddit.com/r/eink/comments/1e3icaz/any_company_d...
It's probably too soon to easily tell whether that's enough to make e-ink screens cheaper and more available.
There are patents on nearly every active component in the cheapest of electronic devices. I don't think it's patents.
There are many tens of millions of e-Ink store shelf-edge price labels around, for example, and they're a cheap commodity item.
If only there were some article on the topic of why there are no cheap ereaders... I hope somebody posts one to HN soon.