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The first electronic paper displays that can show color were unveiled Wednesday in Japan.
The screens open to way for e-book readers like Amazon's Kindle and Sony's Reader to
add color but so far only a single Chinese device maker has committed to the technology.
E Ink, a leader in the e-paper market, showed this 9.7-inch screen that can display 4,096
colors.
Like all e-paper screens, there is no light source inside the display and it uses reflected
ambient light to make its image visible. For this reason the colors appeared a little dull
when compared to backlit screens like those in laptops or flat-panel TVs.
Sriram Peruvemba, vice president of global sales at E Ink.
"We are aiming at newer markets like electronic textbooks and advertisements in newspapers."
The first product to feature the screen will be this e-reader from China's Hanwang Technology.
Scheduled to go on sale next year in China and some overseas markets, it will cost around
535 US dollars.
LG Electronics had two models of color e-paper display.
One was a 9.7-inch screen with similar specifications to E Ink's screen and one was a combo display.
The majority of the screen was a monochrome e-paper display but a strip along the bottom
offered color.
LG didn't say when the screens would go on sale.
At FPD International in Chiba, Japan, this is Martyn Willliams, IDG News Service.