CES 2012: Mirasol Technology Gaining Ground

The Kyobo eReader is no longer the only electronic book to run using Mirasol display technology. Two new models have now joined it on the Korean market: the Bambook Sunflower and Hanvon C18.

Qualcomm, which has invested more than USD 1 bn in the development of Mirasol technology, has taken the opportunity of announcing the arrival of two eReaders incorporating it at CES 2012. These are the Bambook Sunflower, made in partnership with Shanghai Nutsell Electronic, and the Hanvon C18, developed jointly with Hanvon, manufacturer of general consumer electronic products specialised in shape recognition.

To recap, Mirasol technology has been designed for small mobile devices. It gives comparable colours to LCD and offers screens without any backlighting based on micro-mirror technology and adapted to reading even in full sunlight, whilst also having very long battery life. Currently E-Ink is the most common technology found on eReaders. Will this soon be replaced by Mirasol?

The Hanvon C18 (touchscreen, colour, wi-fi) is described as being thin (1 cm) and light (300 g). Similar to the Kyobo and Bambook Sunflower, it also has a 5.7-inch screen with a 1024 x 768 pixel resolution, a 1 GHz single core Snapdragon S2 processor and runs on Android 2.3.

In terms of content, the Hanvon C18 also provides access to tens of thousands of electronic books, over a hundred Chinese newspapers, ninety percent of which in colour. Negotiations with publishers are underway.

These two products will be put on sale in China in the weeks to come and pricing will be announced at that time. Will we see them in Europe or the USA? One would think so. And when will these eReaders be reviewed on DigitalVersus? For the moment we can't say...


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