AR&D Reinventing Local Media

Russell Wilcox is President and CEO of E Ink, the company that invented the electronic ink best known for making the Amazon Kindle possible. When I met Russell, I was intruiged. I asked if he would do a Q&A for us to describe what E Ink is and in what future applications we may see it. I was especially interested in his take on how local media could use E Ink in the near future.

Russell won Ernst & Young’s New England Entrepreneur of the Year in 2009.

Give us the simplest explanation of E Ink.

Electronic ink is made of tiny clear microcapsules. Inside the capsules there are white and black particles. It looks a bit like a very tiny snow globe with both white and black snow inside! But there are millions of these tiny capsules and they are so small your eye cannot see them individually.

Now, to make an electronic display, we start with a glass sheet that has an array of pixels in rows and columns, and we coat that with a layer of microcapsules. When the computer gives the pixel a positive charge, all the black particles near that pixel are pushed to the top and the capsule looks black. When the computer gives the pixel a negative charge, all the white particles rise and the capsule looks white.

The secret of electronic ink is the raw materials. Our black pigments are the same carbon black that is issued in printer’s ink to make it black. Our white pigments are the same titanium dioxide that is used to brighten paper, and to make a lot of other things look white, including white wall paint, golf balls, and even non-dairy creamer!

How E Ink Works:

How did the idea develop? What was your role?

The idea came from Joe Jacobson at the MIT Media Lab. He wanted to invent a book that could be flexible and have all the pages change at the push of a button.

I was the business guy who helped start the company. My job was to get the funding, find some interested customers, and then cheer like mad while the scientists invented better and better versions of the technology so we could sell a great product.

What commercial applications is it used in now?

Our technology is found in many electronic book devices, including the SONY Reader and the Amazon Kindle. We are also used in other flexible and paper-thin display applications. The recent Alias2 cellphone from Samsung has a changeable keypad covered with an E Ink display – open it like a flip phone and the keys show numbers for quick dialing; open it like a laptop, and the keys switch to show letters for texting. We are also in displays for electronic shelf price labels, memory stick indicators, watches and signage.

Right now, we see E Ink in monochrome (and shades of grey) in products like Kindle and the Phosphor watch. You have colors — will we see them in the mainstream?

We have color at the demo stage now. You may see first products in late 2010 or early 2011.

The E Ink applications aren’t like TV – they don’t move so much as “draw.” Is there the possibility for enough screen refreshing for E  Ink that we could see motion? At some point, could local media use an E Ink product to show video or photo slideshows?

We can do some simple animation now, like menu bars and pointers. This will keep improving over time. The coolest “fast” feature we can support now is pen input for handwriting – so you can have the experience of an electronic pen to go with your electronic paper. Products with this are out now in China and may come to the USA in another year or so.

Although we are not targeting the TV market, in the lab we have versions that are fast enough to watch some video and this could be useful for mobile video applications like video phone or watching YouTube.

Put on your futurist cap: how could news use E Ink products in the  near future?
News organizations can publish to electronic book devices like the Kindle right now, and that does take advantage of vast cost savings on distribution.

Most Newspaper companies make their money with advertising though, and so the big change in the near future that will benefit media companies is larger display sizes and color, which will allow them to sell effective advertising space.

Here is a flight of fancy… imagine that you can call up the Boston Globe and instead of a quarter ton of newspapers on your doorstep for $300 per year, they just mail you a “Boston Globe in a Box”. Inside is a large newspaper reader device with a wireless radio. You open the box, turn it on and it automatically downloads the latest Boston Globe and remains up to date at all times. The Globe does not need to charge you anything, because the advertising sales cover all their costs of collecting news, (and) meanwhile they can cut out all their newsprint and trucking costs. For an added fee you can get more newspapers, buy books, or surf the web.

What’s the wildest application, prototype or proposal you’ve seen for E Ink?
Wow, there have been a few!

- Animated makeup: A couple of cosmetic companies have had interest, and one medical company wanted to animate the face of a large doll, so that student doctors could practice on it. They wanted the doll to make lifelike expressions as the students did what doctors do. Others have asked about digital tattoos.

- An animated cup that would use the acid in soda pop to help activate a power source – imagine Harry Potter riding his broomstick on a Big Gulp cup.

- A protective coating for a building roof that would turn white in the sun and dark in the shade to manage heat

- A roll-up electronic book that looks like an ancient scroll

- A cover for a magazine that blinks the title to attract attention at the newsstand – we actually did this one with Esquire and Ford last year!

- Signage on subway cars that would change so you always have something to read

- A counter on a sneaker that would show you how many steps you had taken

And of course the original idea that started it all:

- A book with hundreds of pages, that could rewrite itself as a new book at the push of a button

That one’s still a ways off because it would be so expensive, but even with just one page, eBook devices today offer a satisfying reading experience, which will only get better over time.

I’m a sucker. I’m one of those “early adopters” you read about – the people who get the newest gadgets as soon as they come out. I’ve modified my ways in recent years, never buying a 1st generation product. (I learned my lesson from the battery-challenged 1st gen iPod.) I waited for the 2nd gen iPhone (3G) and the 2nd gen Amazon Kindle. Both are terrific products. But I’m still killed by the indifference that companies show to the people who make their product viable. If we don’t create the buzz, the product doesn’t perform as well.

So I purchased the iPhone 3G earlier this year for $399, and the Kindle for more than I care to print. Within a few months, both products dropped in price. Amazon came out with a bigger Kindle that’s less expensive than the smaller one I bought. The iPhone 3G (S) alphabet soup starts at $99 – unless you bought the iPhone 3G this year, in which case they’ll penalize you. You actually have to pay more for the thing than 1st time buyers because you haven’t amortized the cost of your phone, or are trying to change your contract, or whatever.

Wouldn’t it be nice to see a company reward early adopters?

I can’t tell you how many people have seen me using my iPhone and decided on the spot to get one. I bet I’ve helped Apple sell at least five. I am that “volunteer word of mouth marketer” that every company seems so intent on finding. So how are we treated? Like suckers P.T. Barnum would be proud to meet.

So here’s a thought for these companies with high-profile products: REWARD THE EARLY ADOPTERS!

Amazon and Apple want you to have their hardware so you’ll buy their software. The software (books, music, apps) is simply bits and bytes. Give us a token. Send us a credit. Work a deal with the popular labels and publishers for some freebies. You could even make it a hell of a promo: “Anyone who has a 2nd gen iPhone can download the latest song by (insert band name here), as well as $25 worth of whatever they want.

Put it in the marketing budget. Get together with bands and authors who would love the publicity and would forgo their cut. The more people that read the book, the more they’ll recommend it to paying friends.

This concept has precedent. Apple gave 1st gen iPhone customers (the ones who waited in absurd lines to pay $599 for the thing) a $100 credit toward Apple purchases when it dropped the price of the phone by $200 just 10 weeks after the iPhone’s introduction. A token, to be sure. But at least it was something.

These damn things ought to come with warranties: “If we introduce a bigger (or smaller), badder product in the next six months, we’ll refund half your purchase price if you put it toward the new product.”

Right now, I’m telling friends not to buy the iPhone 3G (s) because of the problems with the AT&T network. “It’s a great product,” I tell friends, “unless you want to make a call. Then it sucks.” But how easy would it be to turn that around for me? “For every dropped call, we’ll credit you its cost and add five minutes to your plan.” It’s just software. It could be done.

There are conferences and companies teaching “Word of Mouth” marketing. I can summarize it and save you a bundle: reward your early adopters. Those who pay the most for your product and preach its charms should be lauded, not made to feel foolish.