Overheard: There’s big bucks in e-paper and e-book technology

Flexible electrophoretic displays used for e-books and e-paper will grow to a US $1.7 billion industry by 2013. Jennifer Colegrove, as quoted in Esquire to Put Digital Moving Pix on Mag Cover

Esquire magazine is putting a scrolling electronic paper display cover on 200,000 magazines this September. Some have called it a publicity stunt, but I think that’s short-sighted. The real ‘ooo and ahhh’ is the effort that went into bringing the technology to the newstand. It’s a baby step, but we’re moving in the right direction. Remember when National Geographic put a holograph of an eagle on their cover? We didn’t really think that all magazine covers would become holograms, did we? No. We just applauded the technology behind it. And rightly so. Just take a look at your Visa card — and then sit back and wait to see all the ways we figure out how to use electronic paper display technology.