ePaper and Flexible Thin Film Transfer

Just had a great oppoprtunity to chat with my co-panelist here at the Pub Exec conference, Peter Meiers. Peter is Director of Alternative Media with Time, Inc. We got to talking about the impact that we feel technologies like ePaper and TFT will have on publishing. He and I both agree that once fully developed, these technologies will seriously begin to repace paper as a medium. They are high resolution, viewable in direct sunlight, and basically have the same visual properties of real paper. What does this mean to you right now? Personally, I believe that the technology is still 5-10 years away from having a major impact on publishing so there isn’t much of an immediate impact. Print is still safe for now. But keep your eye on these technologies. Once they start hitting the mainstream, everything will change for publishers. Then, I truly believe the days of paper distribution and consumption of media will be numbered.