Karl McGoldrick - CEO of Polymer Vision

13 Apr 2010

Polymer Vision went into receivership in July 2009 after struggling to find funds for its rollable e-reader, the Readius.

However, the company was bought out by ICT technology manufacturer Wistron in a €12 million deal in October 2009, and has gone on to continue the development of the Readius.

Karl McGoldrick, CEO of Polymer Vision, discusses the changes in the e-reader market over the past year and how the market will grow.

What impact will the iPad have on the e-reader market?

'My general impression is that it is more complex than simply competing with e-reading.
It's beautiful, and it's an Apple product, which means it will do well, but it's not competitive for e-reading. The bright, emissive LCD display is extremely tiring on the eyes. That's something that won't go away when the dust settles.'

Do you think the iBooks application suggests that Apple believes it can compete in this market though?

It does have a very cool iBook section, which people say will be similar to the success of iTunes. But the average number of songs paid for on iTunes is very low: people use it to manage music, not to buy it.

A number of e-reader developers are working on larger screen sizes. Why is Polymer Vision maintaining focus on a pocket-sized device?

People are making 8-9 inch screens. There's a bit of competition in terms of "mine's bigger than yours," but it remains to be seen whether there's a market for these bigger screens.

I'm a firm believer in the mobile space. From a market perspective, a pocketable e-reader is truly mobile, like the mobile phone.

There is a lot of talk about the e-reading market, but relatively it is quite small. If you take e-paper and roll or fold it up, then you really merge e-reading into the mobile factor that worked so well for phones.

Mobile phones are ubiquitous because they cater for all price ranges. How can you make a straightforward mobile e-reader cheap enough to do the same?

Today's e-readers are centred on an e-ink display on glass, which is breakable. This adds expense. However, this will change on the next year or two.

The price won't drop to $99 immediately. Until you have a non-breakable display, that will keep the price pumped up for a couple of years. I believe the sweet spot is an unbreakable 5-6 inch display.
 

Volume 3, issue 1 of +Plastic Electronics takes a look at the future of the e-reader market and speaks to industry figures about how developers can succeed. To find out more and subscribe in time for the next issue, visit our Magazine page.