LG Display Shines A Light On Solar-Panel E-Reader
LG Display showed off the product at The International Meeting on Information Display 2009 show in Korea. The product's 6-inch display features a solar cell measuring 10 centimeters in width and length. The thin-film cell is just 0.7 millimeter in thickness, which is skinnier than a credit card and weighs 20 grams, which is about as light as a fountain pen, the Seoul, Korea-based company said.
"E-books are attracting a lot of attention because they offer the advantage of storing thousands of books' worth of contents in an easy-to-carry device," said Ki Yong Kim, head of the Solar Cell Office at LG Display, in a statement. "The idea of e-book combined with solar cell will offer users the added benefit of longer usage. We will continue to provide users with enhanced convenience and value to solidify our lead in next-generation, environmentally friendly products."
Whether a green e-book reader will grab market share away from top dogs such as Amazon.com's Kindle and Sony's e-reader remains to be seen.
In any event, LG's product is not due to hit stores shelves for another three years. In the meantime, the company said it plans to up the energy conversion efficiency rate to 12 percent by 2010, and eventually achieve an efficiency rate of 14 percent by the time of its 2012 release.