NEW YORK: The newspapers of the future cheap digital screens that can be rolled up and stuffed in a back pocket have been just around the corner for the last three decades.
But by next year, the future may finally have arrived.
Some of the world's top newspaper publishers are planning to introduce a form of electronic newspaper that will allow users to download entire editions from the Web onto reflective digital screens said to be easier on the eyes than light-emitting laptop or cellphone displays.
Flexible versions of these readers could be available as early as 2007.
Publishers Hearst Corp in the US, Pearson Plc's Les Echos in Paris and Belgian financial paper De Tijd are planning large-scale trials of the readers this year.
A new generation of digital readers from Sony Corp and iRex, a Philips Electronics spin-off, have impressed publishers with their sharp resolution and energy efficiency.
"This could be a real substitution for printed paper," said Jochen Dieckow, head of the news media and research division of Ifra, a global newspaper association based in Germany.
Sony and iRex's new devices employ screen technology by E Ink, which originated from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology's Media Lab. Investors include Hearst, Philips, McClatchy Co, Motorola Inc and Intel Corp.
The company produces energy-efficient ink sheets that contain tiny capsules showing either black or white depending on the electric current running through them.
Some of the latest devices apply E Ink's sheets to glass transistor boards, or back planes, which are rigid. But by 2007, companies such as UK-based Plastic Logic Ltd will manufacture screens on flexible plastic sheets, analysts say.
Sony's reader will cost between US$300 and US$400.
