Mirasol E-Reader Becomes Real, Out of Reach for Most Though

Some may have thought it would never happen, or at least that it wouldn't happen any time this year, but it did, Qualcomm made an e-reader using a Mirasol display.

The device that Qualcomm created measures 5.7 inches in diagonal and stands apart from all other e-book readers through the special properties of its display.

It uses the interferometric modulation (IMOD) micro-electro-mechanical systems-based technology.

This makes the screen work on the same principle as what gives butterfly wings their iridescence: by creating color from ambient reflected light.

In other words, the screen will be fully visible even under bright sunlight (the light will basically be 'absorbed' and used instead of backlighting). The resolution is 1,024 x 768 pixels / 223 ppi.

To fit in with this functionality, the backlight of the Kyobo E-reader (such is the name of the device) is adjustable.

In normal lighting conditions, it can be set at 25%, which allows for what the company phrases as “weeks of reading” depending on use (and with WiFi off).

“The Kyobo e-Reader brings the user a true book reading experience,” said Mr. Seong-Ryong Kim, chief executive officer of Kyobo Book Centre.

“With our diverse content and leading edge technology from Qualcomm, Kyobo Book Centre will provide a premium reading experience to our customers.”

Qualcomm put a Snapdragon S2 single-core processor at the heart of the item (1 GHz clock speed) and chose the Android 2.3 operating system.

Unfortunately, only South Korea has it in stores, for the price of 349,000 won, or $305 (226 Euro).

That is an unfortunately high price tag, higher than the Amazon Kindle Fire tablet actually. This practically casts uncertainty over the chances of Kyobo making any sort of visible impact and it would be unfortunate for such an anticipated device to be killed off early because of it.