Last week the company E-Ink has made available to everyone an online store where it sells and distributes its products directly to end users. Among these products are the screens for eReaders, electronic labels and other panels that we can use with Free Hardware for home projects.
The interesting thing about this E-Ink store is that it will not only allow companies and small SMEs to create new products but also makes it possible to create our own eReader at will or need without paying large amounts of money for it.
The E-ink store will allow us to create our own eReader for our needs
Surely many of you know the Kindleberry project, a project that transforms an Amazon eReader into a 6-inch (more or less) computer monitor. Well, with this E-Ink store you can do the reverse, that is, buy an 8-inch or larger e-ink screen and connect it to a Raspberry Pi Zero.
With what we will have a powerful eReader that can read any ebook we want and even with music or audiobook and all for the same price of the Kobo Aura One or even less. In addition, we will not have problems of being confused with another model because no one will have the same eReader.
Needless to say E-Ink's online store will also open the door to small bookstores and small businesses who want to have their own eReader or other companies that need electronic ink but do not want to buy large volumes of the product.
I also believe that this online store will allow E-Ink to free itself from dependence on Amazon and Kobo, your main buyers and your downfall if they decide to stop working with the company. So selling e-ink products to end users seems like a good idea Do not you think?
It is fine for those with knowledge of hardware and software. You give me one of those screens and I wouldn't know what to do with it.
What's more, I think that even with knowledge it is not so easy to create an ereader huh ...