E-ink is already pretty expensive as a display technology, no way anyone can mak...

pooper · 2025-06-02T12:24:51 1748867091

> 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?

TeMPOraL · 2025-06-02T12:41:37 1748868097

Apparently so. I recall this explanation back from 2021:

Supposedly, a core patent for the technology expired a year ago:

It's probably too soon to easily tell whether that's enough to make e-ink screens cheaper and more available.

fortran77 · 2025-06-02T15:16:23 1748877383

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.

lozenge · 2025-06-02T13:20:56 1748870456

If only there were some article on the topic of why there are no cheap ereaders... I hope somebody posts one to HN soon.