GigaOM » Plastic Logic

CES 2013: Will your next tablet be made of plastic paper?

Kevin C. Tofel — Mon, 07 Jan 2013 18:05:24 +0000

Plastic Logic, an e-ink display company that has had its shares of ups and downs — mostly downs — is back with a new innovation: a paper-like tablet. Later this week at the International Consumer Electronics Show, Plastic Logic will be showing off the PaperTab prototype but on Monday shared a brief video of the technology. By all appearances, it looks like it combines a thin, flexible display with a computer chip and sensors:

Indeed, the 10.7-inch touchscreen PaperTab is powered by an Intel Core i5 processor. By slightly bending the display, you can turn a page and data can be shared between two PaperTabs by tapping them together.

We’re still early in the tablet days, so don’t expect to see this product on a retail shelf anytime soon. As we’ve seen from both successful tablets and slates that haven’t sold well, the platform, interface and applications are all important pieces to the tablet puzzle.

I think this tech is geared more towards reading activities than all of the various things a tablet can do. But the idea of carrying a lightweight, bendable piece of plastic paper is intriguing for various future products; enough for me to try and stop by to see the PaperTab with my own eyes later this week.

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Buoyed by Russian cash, Plastic Logic turns from U.S.

Bobbie Johnson — Tue, 13 Sep 2011 10:50:38 +0000

It’s been a turbulent few years for Plastic Logic, the embattled e-reader company, but the past few days have seen such a frenzy of activity that even the hardest-working rivals would be put to shame.

First the company announced it was changing its leadership team, bringing in a new CEO, Indro Mukerjee. Then it said it was moving its headquarters away from Mountain View, Calif., and back to Cambridge, England, where it had all started. And then, yesterday, the company announced that it was finally going to get its first real product into the market.

What is it? It’s the PL 100, a touchscreen e-reader targeted at students. For around $400, you get a device with an e-ink-style 10.7-inch capacative screen with 150 pixels per inch and 4 GB of memory, weighing in at 475 grams — lighter than an iPad or a Kindle.

Sounds interesting, perhaps. But here’s the thing you might not be expecting: It’s being released in Russia, and only in Russia. So yes, those $400 will actually be 12,000 roubles. And even then it’s only being sold to a certain number of selected schools, for pupils in the sixth and seventh grade, since the company is pitching it really hard as an education-only device.

Sounds crazy? Well, maybe. But it’s just the latest chapter in what has been a troubled and turbulent story. Originally spun out of Cambridge University in 2000, Plastic Logic spent years developing plastic electronic displays.

Two years ago, the company was gearing up for the launch of its first product, the Que reader. But just when it seemed prepared to reach the market, it was hit by a string of blows that left it wobbling. The iPad arrived, offering a dramatically different touchscreen experience to the Que; the Kindle dropped in price, making its rival look like a very expensive piece of kit. In the end, much like HP with its Touchpad, Plastic Logic decided to put the Que out of its misery.

So after all that strife, it’s interesting to see a product finally emerge — even if most of us aren’t going to get our hands on it for some time.

But why Russia? Switching from the sunny climes of California to the cold winters of the Russian steppes may seem a little crazy, but the reasoning is easy: Plastic Logic is focusing on Russia because that’s where its investors are.

Earlier this year the company made a deal with the Russian Nanotechnology Corporation to take $700 million in funding — money that would help it pay off debts, particularly those incurred by the failure of Que — and set up a factory in Zelenograd, the Moscow suburb known as the Silicon Valley of Russia. And now, with that money as its lifeline, Plastic Logic is serving that market.

The question is whether withdrawing from the international market — the company is hinting that it may sell the PL100 elsewhere, but it’s tight-lipped on where and when — makes this more or less likely to be successful. Of course in some respects getting a product out there, anywhere, is a distinct sort of progress. But waving goodbye to the American market at the behest of your financiers seems a tricky way of keeping your head above water.

Is that a sensible move? Or just one that keeps it alive? We’ll see over the next few months.

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Big Money VC Deals are Back

Cortney Fielding — Fri, 15 Apr 2011 04:01:22 +0000

Big money deals are back in style. Venture firms dropped nearly $5.9 billion on 736 deals during the first quarter of 2011, a 14 percent increase in dollars over last year but a 6.5 percent drop in deal volume, according to the latest MoneyTree Report by PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP and the National Venture Capital Association (NVCA).

While the number of total deals hit its lowest point since the third quarter of 2009, VCs appeared to be falling all over themselves to invest huge chunks of change across the software, biotech/energy and media industries.

This quarter, 14 companies secured rounds of at least $50 million, while four drew more than $100 million. The industry hasn’t seen figures like that seen the third quarter of 2001.

As expected, the biggest windfalls went to established companies playing the IPO waiting game, as the later-stage investments rose 52 percent from the last quarter alone.

Cleantech played a large role in the later-stage surge. The capital-intensive industry had a near-record-setting billion-dollar quarter, grabbing six of the top 10 venture deals. The largest VC deal of the year went to Oakland-based solar-plant builder BrightSource Energy, which brought in $201 million in later-stage financing.

Plastic Logic, a Mountain View-based e-reader technology firm was a close second with $200 million. Meanwhile, New York-based software firm Appsense received $70 million in later-stage funding. Digital music startup Beyond Oblivion, also headquartered in the New York, received $77 million in early-stage funds.

Overall, VCs spent an average of $8 million per deal this quarter, up from $6.6 million this time last year and $6.8 million last quarter. The largest chunk went to the software industry, which received $1.1 billion, up from $809 million last year. A fifth of those funds went to multimedia, cloud computing, mobile apps and mobile devices.

The biggest dip in deal volume and funding came at the seed level. Seed investment shrunk down to $121 million from $423 million last year. And only 56 seeds were funded, down 36 percent from last year.

The decline in seed deals can perhaps be attributed to the rise of super angels, who are increasingly stepping up to fund fledgling startups, especially in the consumer Internet, mobile and digital media sectors that don’t require huge amounts of capital to get started.

At least for now, the VCs appear more interested in fertilizing select early to later-stage companies with big bucks than watering a whole bunch of seedlings. But when green starts to peek through the ground, VCs will likely appear, offering some green of their own.

Photo courtesy of (CC BY-SA 2.0) Flickr user Tracy O.

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Plastic Logic (Finally) Kills Que Reader

James Kendrick — Wed, 11 Aug 2010 15:30:02 +0000

Plastic Logic has been talking about the launch of its Que e-Reader for almost two years, but no more. The company has officially killed the Que without shipping a single unit. The Que was supposed to be the Cadillac of e-book readers, with an E Ink screen larger than most readers and a focus on business users. Unfortunately, a $649 reader has no way to compete with readers focused at consumers, such as the $139 Kindle.

The Plastic Logic situation demonstrates what can happen when a new product segment grows quickly. What seemed to be a solid entry to the nascent e-reader market was obsolete before it could ship. The company believed a high-end product like the Que would be well-received, and seeing competing products rapidly dropping in price no doubt contributed to several shipping delays.

The final straw in the Que’s back was the successful launch of the iPad with its iBooks app. The iPad is a full mobile computer with e-book reading capability, yet is significantly cheaper than the Que, which is just a reader. Plastic Logic realized it could never compete in functionality, and probably not even price.

Plastic Logic is planning a “2nd generation” reader device, although without actually shipping the original Que the description isn’t quite accurate. In the press release, company CEO Richard Archuleta lays out the plan for the new ProReader:

“We plan to take the necessary time needed to re-enter the market as we refocus, redesign and retool for our next generation ProReader product. We continue to perfect our core plastic electronic technology and manufacturing processes that are central to our product’s unique value proposition.”

It’s hard to re-enter a market you haven’t really been in, and it remains to be seen how patient Plastic Logic’s investors will be while bringing the ProReader to this market that is highly consumer oriented. The company is not divulging particulars about the new device, so we’ll have to wait and see what chance it might have.

Related research on GigaOM Pro (sub. req’d): Irrational Exuberance Over E-Books?

Report: Monetizing Digital Content

paulzagaeski — Tue, 30 Mar 2010 07:00:16 +0000

The worldwide online market for digital goods will grow amid a state of continuous disruption across all forms of content markets. Fueled by an ever-growing user base, migration from physical formats to digital distribution, and a proliferation of new connected devices, the overall market for digital goods will grow to $36 billion by 2014, up from $16.7 billion in 2009. This report examines the state of paid content and the various monetization and payment models across each of the various digital goods markets. The report examines key players and market dynamics in the film and video, newspaper, online game, music and social networks space relative to their paid content strategies, and includes a revenue forecast of each of these segments relative to the overall paid content market.

Green Gadgets: What to Look for at CES

Pedro Hernandez — Thu, 31 Dec 2009 16:00:16 +0000

Each year, the holidays spill well into January for tech-obsessed geeks, thanks to the Consumer Electronics Show (CES). In 2010, CES will continue that tradition with some decidedly green flair. Like Japan’s CEATEC this fall, eco-consciousness will be a major theme, from the show’s larger Sustainable Planet technology zone (hopefully with less solar junk this year) to a green press room that’s putting tight restrictions on the amount of paper exhibitors can dump on attendees. What about the green gadgets? There are bound to be plenty, but here are the ones that are sure to pique the interest of eco-minded, tech-savvy consumers.

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Connected Consumer Winners and Losers of 2009

GigaOM Pro — Mon, 21 Dec 2009 16:00:17 +0000

As the year winds to a close, GigaOM Pro’s crack team of contributors takes a look back at what went right, what went wrong, and for whom.

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Evolution of the E-book Market

Tue, 04 Aug 2009 12:00:15 +0000

The emergence of a commercially significant electronic book (e-book) market in the past three years has been the result of two quite-recent technological developments. The first, and most critical, has been a breakthrough in the technology for manufacturing reflective electronic paper displays (EPDs), allowing for the introduction of affordable, lightweight and portable e-book readers such as Amazon’s Kindle and Sony’s Reader.

The second has been the rollout of reliable “3G” wireless broadband networks, which have made it possible to deliver digital books directly to reading devices without the intermediate steps of downloading files to a PC and then transferring them to a reader. Direct-to-device sampling and delivery, particularly with Amazon’s Kindle and Apple’s iPhone, have enabled impulse-driven e-commerce, which has been critical to early consumer adoption of e-books.

The technology for e-books, however, remains nascent. The Kindle and its ilk are very much first-generation devices that deliver the minimally acceptable experience. Further development of the business will be closely tied to future technological developments, including flexible and color displays, format standardization and rich-media applications. As the market grows, there are numerous opportunities for other technology players, from social networks to cloud service providers and more. This report examines the trends and opportunities ahead.

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AT&T May Love M2M, But Show Me the Data Plans

Stacey Higginbotham — Wed, 22 Jul 2009 17:43:50 +0000

AT&T said today that it will provide wireless service for an eagerly anticipated e-reader from Plastic Logic, and that it’s inked an agreement with Jasper Wireless to provide 3G service to a variety of consumer devices such as cameras and navigation systems in cars. The two announcements, in light of the carrier’s stated goal of providing wireless service to a variety of devices as a way to boost revenue and profits, has folks all abuzz. But when it comes to the success of these efforts, the proof is in the payment plans.

So far AT&T has not disclosed pricing plans for its machine-to-machine (M2M) efforts, but to succeed it will have to offer a range that goes beyond its current offers of 5 GB for $60 or 200 MB for $40. Glenn Lurie, the executive in charge of M2M at AT&T, outlined to me back in June a variety of possible plans — from day passes to prepaid cards — that basically allow AT&T to charge a small fee each time someone sends a photo from their digital camera to another person using the 3G network. He also told me:

“If you had asked me five years ago if we would be doing this, you may have gotten a different answer,” Lurie said. “The goal of finding this incremental revenue is to make money. There is a lot of baggage around average revenue per user (ARPU), but these incremental revenues may bring in $1 per subscriber per month at 50 points of OIBDA [margin] on that dollar.”

Specifically, AT&T wants to use M2M to make money on its newly deployed HSPA network. But it lags other carriers that have already started providing wireless service to myriad devices (see our story from June for some fun examples) on their 3G networks. Sprint sells access to its network to Amazon for its Kindle, while T-Mobile has a program in place to provide wireless access to smart meters. In other parts of the world, Vodafone yesterday said it was launching a platform to provide M2M connectivity. So as AT&T joins the wave of carriers touting M2M, it still has to develop a pricing plan that can generate profits by getting consumers to connect.

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Semiconductor Ink Could Drive Computing Demand

Stacey Higginbotham — Thu, 22 Jan 2009 14:47:44 +0000

Chemical giant BASF and a small specialty chemicals company in Skokie, Ill., called Polyera Corp. have come up with a new type of semiconductor ink they plan to market under the name ActivInk. The ink is based on a new molecule that allows printed ink to carry a negative charge. Flexible circuits carrying a positive charge exist already, but by adding the negative charge you speed up the semiconductor and add reliability. The innovation could be used to make a soluble electronic ink, cheaper RFID tags and bendable displays.

The technology could drive wider adoption of RFID and real-time inventory management of everyday items. Such an effort would would benefit existing RFID players — and require incredible computing power to manage the vast amount of data created by ubiquitous RFID.

The exciting thing here is cost — the goal is to print these out like one prints a newspaper, making manufacturing cheap. If we can get the price of RFID tags below a cent or even below the 5 cents to 17 cents they can cost today, it would become more economical to use them to track smaller items. There are other applications, such as flexible displays, also being worked on by Polyera competitors, Plextronics, Plastic Logic and Polymer Vision.

With cheap RFID, real-time inventory management at the item level (rather than on pallets and boxes) becomes possible. An RFID and software system could let a retailer know when all size 6 shirts of a certain color are out of stock on shelves and call the warehouse or backroom to get more delivered quickly. Powering such a system in real time will require better computer systems and software, which means retailers will need hardware, as well as software, to track the vast amounts of data generated. RFID vendors such as IBM and Motorola, which sell RFID systems, would benefit, as would software companies such as SAP.

BASF and Polyera have been commercializing this technology since April 2007.

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