Prime View’s E-Reader Display Outlook Not So Clear In 2010

If the brands behind the Kindle, Nook, and Sony's Reader can agree on one thing, it’s that Prime View International makes the best screens for displaying e-reader text. Unfortunately for Prime View, that may soon change.

Though one rarely notices the paper a book is printed on, the market for “e-paper” is shaping up to be as competitive as the market for the e-readers that use it. Back in June, Taiwan-based Prime View announced its acquisition of E-Ink, whose technology displays that text, in order to corner the nascent e-reader universe.

“Taiwan Firm Positioned for E-Reader Takeoff” headlined the New York Times in a November article that suggested the company would “strengthen its leadership in the next year or two, before anyone else can catch up.”

Yet in a recent Wall Street Journal article, the president of Sony's digital reading division noted (ominously, if you work for Prime View) that “many different companies are approaching us to use their screen technology going forward.” So much for that leadership position.

One of these “many different companies” likely includes Qualcomm, which offers a display technology branded as Mirasol. Qualcomm brags on the Mirasol site that the technology is “a new FUTURE for e-reader displays.” The future, for starters, includes color and videos -- two options that Prime View promises to deliver… next year.

The ability to slide a large library into a slim bag is still pretty, well, novel, but just as pre-iPhone smartphones don’t seem so “smart” anymore, those black-and-white text-only e-readers will quickly seem “so 2000s” by the beginning of the 2010s.

If Prime View wants to remain an active player, it had better act fast. Despite its current position in the e-reader market, the brand continues to lose money. And if that rumored Apple e-reader/tablet/water-to-wine-changer is actually released next month, you won’t need an e-reader to figure out the ending to Prime View’s story.