Chinese company Guangzhou OED says it’s developed a new type of electronic paper that could be lighter, more flexible, and brighter than the E Ink displays used in most of today’s eReaders (and some other products such as digital signage and luggage tags).
That’s because the new screen technology uses graphene instead of glass or plastic. But that doesn’t necessarily mean that next-gen Kindles will have graphene-based displays.
On the one hand, graphene is a carbon-based material that’s thin, light, flexible, sturdy, and offers high light transmittance, all of which seem to offer benefits over today’s screens. And theoretically they should be relatively inexpensive to produce.
But as some have noted, it takes time and money to ramp up production for a new technology like this, and it’s not clear that there’s enough demand for eReaders to justify using this new technology for that market.
It’s also worth noting that this isn’t the first time we’ve seen graphene demonstrated as a material for displays.
One day it’s possible that commercially-available electronic paper displays could utiltize graphene. I just wouldn’t expect them to show up in Kindle or NOOK eReaders in the next few years.