Qualcomm boss confirms Mirasol ereader canned Pocket-Link reports that the head of Qualcomm, Paul Jacobs, has confirmed that an ereader originally scheduled for release in the first quarter this year, was cancelled as he wasn't happy with it.
We know that it wasn't released, since we're already ending the 2nd quarter.
They'd planned to "launch a low volume ereader product" but decided against a product they "didn't really like." The article mentions that it had been rumored that Amazon "could be on board" but most of us have seen Jeff Bezos say often that the technology wasn't ready.
Now Jacobs sounds as if he's refocusing on the battery-eating LCD OLED tablet arena, although it's clear that Mirasol colors are not nearly as vibrant. That's an understatement. I had thought they'd be acceptable as eReader screens because they'd be compared to b&w e-Ink screens. Even if you can read these in daylight, the cost of a tablet is considerably higher, and people will compare the Mirasol effect to an LCD OLED's vivid colors, while already having a daylight-option with e-Ink readers. So, I'm personally not convinced re the re-focus to tablet hardware.
However, Jacobs adds, ""We don't today have as vibrant colour as an OLED display - but we have a roadmap that gets us to a much brighter colour."
In the meantime, he mentioned a "billion dollar investment for the plant" in Taiwan, currently a 'small operation,' so we'll see, but I can't see that anyone can expect that much very soon.
UPDATE Engadget has a more positive spin on this.
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