The NRF52832 watches are pretty much just limited to satisfy some modding curiosities, Many don't even come with a proper HW step counter.
I would love an E-Ink watch to tinker with at this price point too, But there's a thread every other week on HN discussing why rolling out devices with E-Ink by small companies is extraordinarily difficult.
3 days ago- 'Challenges Building an Open-Source E Ink Laptop'[1]
> "According to conversations I’ve had, the minimum order quantity(MOQ) required for purchase at one time is between 10,000 to 50,000"
In the comments of the same discussion[1],
> "During the initial prototyping(MNT Reform) this was one of the options we considered, but back then it would have been prohibitively expensive and we decided to focus on an IPS display and to get to ship a viable product as quickly as possible -- with a tiny team."
> minimum order quantity(MOQ) required for purchase at one time is between 10,000 to 50,000
Yes, that's quite reasonable. Approaching E Ink would be the equivalent of approaching Intel's tier 1 supply chain and asking what's their MOQ. You wouldn't expect them to sell you 1 unit would you? Like all display manufacturers, they also have distributors that supply the various tiers. At the lowest value tier is the individual customers (ie: developers) who cost the most to support and provide the least profit. So expect pricing to match that value level. It is the same for Samsung. Same for LG.
What I perceive is some kind of entitlement syndrome (that's the feeling I get when reading that blog, it was also the same blog that alleged E Ink was abusing patents based on an HN post and when I challenged it, they finally relented and marked it as "unproven" ) where product ideation people (that blog author for example) think that display companies somehow owe them support. They get hundreds of these kinds of messages all the time from universities, research organizations, educational organizations, product startups all demanding responses and attention but mostly unwilling to pay for it. The reality of the display market is that unless you're coming to a display company with a MOQ or a strong value proposition, you can be certain they'll either ignore you or ask you to talk to one of their lowest tier distributors.
and if you look underneath it, you'll see my comment asking for evidence which OP never responded to. I'm very suspicious of such unsubstantiated claims. I work in the display industry, not at E Ink, but have some experience with using their products commercially as well. As far as I can tell, they're a typical display manufacturer and orient themselves towards their high volume customers. Same as everybody else. If you are a company buying anything less than a hundred thousand displays a year, you shouldn't have any expectation of Samsung or LG or any other display company being willing to listen to or enable your development plans. You buy from lower tier distributors just like everyone else. If there's a market shortage, yes, you'll be the first to feel the pinch because top tier vendors will always have their quantities satisfied first. That's what everybody in the industry does because that's the rational thing to do.
Honestly, I know nothing about the e-ink industry. What I see though is that every new device on the market has plenty of comments like "I wish it had e-ink display" and yet there are no affordable devices like this. I am sure there is a huge market for it, so where are they? I can only think of one reason: patents.
> ... yet there are no affordable devices like this.
Watchy costs about $60 [0]. There is also a dude who put together a guide with how to make one yourself and even lists the components [1]. An e-ink display for his watch costs about $10 at aliexpress. (The components are pretty similar, screen likely the same one.)
If it is possible for some dude on the internet to build their own smartwatch and a crowd funding campaign to do it on a slightly bigger scale, why are not more manufacturers doing it? That is really what I am wondering about. The whole "screen supply" argument seems like it is a non-issue. Is it really patents?
Maybe an e-ink screen is just too boring compared to an Apple Watch's OLED screen?
The other question is why are transflective LCD's so rare? Googling for it, literally only Amazfit seems to still make them.
> the market has plenty of comments like "I wish it had e-ink display" and yet there are no affordable devices like this
> I am sure there is a huge market for it, so where are they? I can only think of one reason: patents.
That's the equivalent of saying, "I wish it had transparent OLED display and yet there are no affordable devices like this". A good analogy would be like looking at the sports car market, and saying Ferraris aren't affordable because of patents. There's numerous reasons why display companies like E Ink and others are unable to make such panels "affordable" because their costs are higher than said price. The dominant reason that I'm aware of is volume. If you're not producing at least a million displays a month, then you can't justify building up a bespoke production line so instead you'll have to repurpose a modified LCD production line for your product and so you'll have lower yields. At larger sizes, you'll even have to kerf by hand. Don't even start thinking about laminating touchscreens, as you'll then start dropping your yields further. It is simple to prove this. Look at E Ink display pricing between say 2002 and today. Their sweetspot is the Amazon sized display and that price has declined dramatically because they achieved volume for only that display. Everything else has stayed around the same price or some have even gone up in price since there's no volume around it. People aren't interested in paying 6 grand for a 32 inch black and white panel and nobody is willing to pony up an order for a million of those even if they could get the price down to 1 grand. No volume, no affordable price. That's the simple truth of the display industry. Patents barely have any effect as far as I can tell. Everybody in the industry has them.
I would love an E-Ink watch to tinker with at this price point too, But there's a thread every other week on HN discussing why rolling out devices with E-Ink by small companies is extraordinarily difficult.