Sony sees Digital Paper, to ship in May, to be able to get paper-based processes out of legal, education, and government organizations.
Sony showed off Digital Paper, a 13.3″ tablet display that uses e-ink technology to render text and graphics, last week on the American Bar Association Techshow in Chicago.
E-ink displays had been eclipsed within the tablet market by LCD displays, the technology utilized in Apple’s iPad and Google’s Nexus tablet, but there’s still demand for alternative display technologies. Amazon bought Liquavista last year to advance its Kindle hardware, and Qualcomm was working with its Mirasol technology.
These alternative display technologies are typically cheaper to provide, more energy efficient, and more readable in direct sunlight. They are not great for games, however. Sony sees Digital Paper to be able to attract business customers who work in paper-intensive environments, but desire to move toward online workflows and business processes.
[Intend to make your existing tablet more productive? See Microsoft Office For iPad: 7 Questions Answered.]
Bob Nell, director of digital paper solutions at Sony Electronics, describes Digital Paper as “a real replacement for the vast amounts of paper that continue to mess many offices and institutions,” noting that it is simple to apply and optimized for reading and annotating contracts and other documents.
The ease of use comes largely from the indisputable fact that the device screen may be written on, as though it were an entire-sized legal pad. Hopefully, workers have already mastered that skill.
The device accommodates social interaction, too. Its notepad feature allows notes to be shared with colleagues and clients, lessening the price and time of printing, copying, and distributing physical documents.
Simplicity won’t spare customers the price of buying the device. Sony Digital Paper would be available for $1,100 in May. Digital Paper should be costlier than Apple’s iPad Air, but it’s less with regards to weight. Digital Paper is solely 12.6 ounces. It measures 9.25″ wide by 12.25″ tall by 0.28″ deep, and may last as long as three weeks on a single battery charge. It comes with 4 GB of internal memory, with a microSD card slot for adding extra capacity.
Sony is operating with document management service Worldox, which has integrated Digital Paper with its document-management software. The software helps attorneys access, annotate, and share documents securely. Sony’s device displays documents as PDF files, but can convert Microsoft Word, PowerPoint, and Excel files as needed.
In 2011, InfoTrends estimated that local, state, and federal government offices used 122 billion sheets of paper a year, which amounts to about 389 sheets for everyone within the US, in response to current population estimates. However the research firm also notes that demand for paper is declining in developed countries.
As devices like Digital Paper proliferate, the mythical paperless office may very well become a meaningful model for environmentally proactive businesses, beyond small tech-centric startups that managed to circumvent paper from the outset. But then there’s the difficulty of e-waste once the devices become obsolete.
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Thomas Claburn was writing about business and technology since 1996, for publications corresponding to New Architect, PC Computing, InformationWeek, Salon, Wired, and Ziff Davis Smart Business. Before that, he worked in film and tv, having earned a not particularly useful … View Full Bio
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