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3GSM / WMC 08: Rollable display – The future of mobile devices?

by Phil Barrett

Roll out phone With all the usual suspects announcing device plans this week at the World Mobile Congress, I was most struck by this funny looking device on the left called the Readius by Polymer vision.

 Athough roughly the same size as your average mobile device, when you roll out the screen (actually it’s more like unwraping) you get an impressive 5 inches of display screen.

Dubbed as an “e-reader” that comes 3G HSDPA and USB 2.0 enabled and with a claim that you can do 30 hours of continuous reading on one battery charge. It also has a micro SD slot for all those ebooks of yours and is also bluetooth enabled.

The device does have a few shortcomings though.

No wifi or camera.

They get away with this by saying it’s not a PDA…it’s an e-reader with phone capabilities.  I’m not sure why anybody would carry both a PDA like device (blackberry, treo, iphone etc…) and the Readius.

The Readius rollable screen is really cool and a first of its kind. It’s also greyscale.   

I know we all said we didn’t mind greyscale when the first blackberry came out, but we were so in love with the email capabilities that we overlooked the terrible display. Having said that, can you imagine carrying around a greyscale mobile device now?  I believe that people will be so in love with the rollable screen that they will overlook the greyscale display at first. 

Although I will likely buy one when they come out in Q2 in Europe, I am looking forward to their second generation device which should include colour, lighter weight and an even larger screen.

  • david

    whats needed to make it colour? was it power or size restrictions?

  • david

    whats needed to make it colour? was it power or size restrictions?

  • http://www.myspace.com/thedeniercri J$

    Readius? Nice idea, bad deployment– I don’t need another paperweight in my already growing cadre of worthless “next gen” devices. I’ve seen people with e-readers at Starbucks and they put them away in a “murse” with all their other toys– call me old fashioned, but when it comes to reading, I’d rather just put the book in my back pocket and not be burdened with the shoulder carrier– GREAT REVIEW as always though!

  • http://www.myspace.com/thedeniercri J$

    Readius? Nice idea, bad deployment– I don’t need another paperweight in my already growing cadre of worthless “next gen” devices. I’ve seen people with e-readers at Starbucks and they put them away in a “murse” with all their other toys– call me old fashioned, but when it comes to reading, I’d rather just put the book in my back pocket and not be burdened with the shoulder carrier– GREAT REVIEW as always though!

  • http://miroslodki.wordpress.com/ miro

    I had seen a report on something like this being developed for the US military – laptop screen size
    so its only a matter of time

    not sure if its been covered before/elsewhere – but would love to have a discussion on the convergence of mobile connectivity
    (computer+phone+camera+GPS+audio/video)
    I understand that intel is working on a low power consumption chip (Silverthorne) that would make it more of a reality
    see http://www.computerworld.com/action/article.do?command=viewArticleBasic&articleId=9060659

    I guess once that’s in place – then we need voice recognition and then heads up display and then…..

    cheers
    Miro

  • http://miroslodki.wordpress.com miro

    I had seen a report on something like this being developed for the US military – laptop screen size
    so its only a matter of time

    not sure if its been covered before/elsewhere – but would love to have a discussion on the convergence of mobile connectivity
    (computer+phone+camera+GPS+audio/video)
    I understand that intel is working on a low power consumption chip (Silverthorne) that would make it more of a reality
    see http://www.computerworld.com/action/article.do?command=viewArticleBasic&articleId=9060659

    I guess once that’s in place – then we need voice recognition and then heads up display and then…..

    cheers
    Miro

  • http://www.burningthebacon.com/ Phil Barrett

    Thanks for sharing the link Miro!

    Some would say that Convergance is alerady happening – especially if you look at the top end Nokia phones which have 5 meg phones with flash, powerful web browsers, built in GPS and outputs for audio / video to your TV or stereo. Check out their commander or N96 models!

    I would also say that the iphone is a convergence device.

    There is no question in my mind that we are all evolving to one small device that will do everything for us….which hopefully will include doing the laundry too :)

  • http://www.burningthebacon.com Phil Barrett

    Thanks for sharing the link Miro!

    Some would say that Convergance is alerady happening – especially if you look at the top end Nokia phones which have 5 meg phones with flash, powerful web browsers, built in GPS and outputs for audio / video to your TV or stereo. Check out their commander or N96 models!

    I would also say that the iphone is a convergence device.

    There is no question in my mind that we are all evolving to one small device that will do everything for us….which hopefully will include doing the laundry too :)

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  • http://destinyswingers.wordpress.com swinging parties

    great post thanks for shaing

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