Esquire, the very popular men's magazine became the world's first magazine to integrate E-Ink technology. E-Ink is basically a type of 'electronic paper' manufactured by E Ink Corporation and it is processed into a film for integration into electronic displays. Mainly used for electronic book devices such as Sony's E-Book Reader, iRex Technology's iLiad, Amazon's Kindle, Bookeen's Cybook Gen3, the Readius and Plastic Logic's reader, it was also showcased and used in on the display of the Motorola F3 mobile phone. Check HERE for more applications of E-Ink Corporation.
Here's the video showing off the E-Ink technology on Esquire's 75th Anniversary - October 2008 issue. Only 100,000 copies were printed and much of the cost was absorbed by its main cover advertiser, Ford which was showcasing the new 2009 Ford Flex Crossover.
Batteries for the E-Ink display in the Esquire magazine would last for up to 90 days and its life could be extended by storing the magazine in a refridgerator or freezer. Will this new technology for magazines be cost efficient? Will the drawbacks such as cost and durability of E-Ink for magazines get overshadowed by the hype and publicity it generates as more magazines with E-Ink rolls out? And why didn't Esquire focus on the mindblowing Ceros interactive digital magazine technology which had been deployed on Monkey Mag UK ? E-Ink technology was originally suited for electronic ink displays (ebook readers to be exact) because of it's low power usage, flexibility and readability but not magazines so why did Esquire even bother to incorporate it into their October issue? One word to sum it all, a 'gimmick'' perhaps. Nonetheless, kudos to Esquire for being the first to embrace this technology in a magazine for they certainly did manage to generate a huge load of buzz around the world.
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