Disadvantages of E-Paper & E-Ink in Various Industries

The disadvantages of E-Paper & E-Ink may be few but they can be costly to all organizations, in all industries, who try to benefit from this new information technology.

All Industries:

• Transition: It will take time and a possible period of decreased performance as staff becomes familiar with the new technology, its uses and, more importantly, its full potential. “The representation of information on a large number of physical pages, which may be physically turned and written on, constitutes a highly preferred means of information interaction,” (http://hotspring.wordpress.com/tag/e-paper/) therefore changing habits may prove difficult. Initially, workers may be skeptical and the proper training, time and investment will be needed if the transformation is to be worthwhile.

• Event Horizon: E-paper has an event horizon after which “information may be fundamentally changed and questions of accessibility, credibility and longevity (conservation of format and re-accessibility), become central to the question of informational freedoms.” (http://hotspring.wordpress.com/tag/e-paper/) This could lead to major customer dissatisfaction and loss of confidence in the brand if the information is tampered with and the wrong information is simultaneously exposed to the large amounts of people who come in contact with the E-Paper.

Newspapers and Books:

• Cost: The technology is still extremely pricy. According to David Granger, editor-in-chief of Esquire (the magazine which launched and E-Paper cover in August), "the technology is so expensive and I think that is one of the barriers we have to overcome over the next couple years." (http://www.canada.com/ottawacitizen/news/story.html?id=277ee375-35df-43e1-80b5-017133b77b2c) The only reason Esquire was able to sell the magazine for a relatively cheap price ($7) was because of a large advertisement purchased by Ford Motor Company (which cannot be relied on for every issue).

• Filtering: If certain privacy mechanisms are not put into action consumers will not have “as much access, on a permanent and private basis, to information as with the standard purchase of a book,” and the “lack of privacy in the media sphere, by contrast, would have a chilling effect on what sorts of content some major media outlets would be willing to provide.” (http://hotspring.wordpress.com/tag/e-paper) The integrity of the newspapers and book could be compromised.

References:

(http://hotspring.wordpress.com/tag/e-paper/)
(http://www.canada.com/ottawacitizen/news/story.html?id=277ee375-35df-43e1-80b5-017133b77b2c)
(http://news.zdnet.com/21000-9595_22-115725.html)