electronrun.com

From all countries, Japan seems to be the best prepared to start widely using e-paper. As Reuters reports, Japanese companies are already very active in e-paper R&D, while the first colour versions have started to appear. We are talking about thin sheets of fabric that accept electronic signals and can be bent or even folded like traditional paper.

Apart from companies that see new product opportunities and try to create the necessary push, here is what could generate consumer demand for e-paper in Japan and to an extent world-wide:

1. BRIC countries (Brazil, Russia, India and China) are flexing their industrial muscle. Both business and consumers need ever more paper and as a result A4 paper prices have recently risen by 20% to 30%. Forests are depleted at alarming rates, therefore prices are bound to increase even further.
2. Japan consumers have the right culture for the adoption of new mobile ideas. Things done by the Japanese on mobile phones, the rest of us only bother to do on laptops or large desktop screens. Take for example novels that are both written and read on cellphones. I bet practical epaper would be perfect for those long hours in the Tokyo metro…
3. Cellphones are on the brink of becoming powerful mobile computing devices and will inevitably need larger screens. E-paper rolling screens could well be one of the best solutions.
4. Japan is a country that has extremely limited raw materials and has learned -in many cases the hard way- how important it is to reuse and limit waste.

Some of the above points apply to everybody and not just Japan. When however most consumers decide on mostly price criteria, Japanese cultural idiosyncrasies can make a big difference in the speed and extent of adoption.

The success of Amazon’s Kindle is a good sign that consumers do not mind the extensive reading of e-books. Also the fact that magazines and newspaper are already exploring the opportunities of extensively publishing electronically for portable readers also says a lot.

Paper waste in business would be a much harder problem to crack as the fully paperless business is still nowhere to be seen. But then again some of our consumer habits are also transferred to our business life, so let’s hope that this is what is also going to happen with our paper depleting habits…

Link 1: ElectronRun – Japanese cellphone novels become bestsellers

Link 2: Reuters