The Nook is jumping to full color &#8212; is this the end of E Ink?

Who needs an official announcement to drum up interest when all you have to do is "accidentally" put up a product page for a few minutes and then take it down. That's exactly what happened last night when a product for a screen protector film for the yet unannounced "Nook Color" was seen on the Barnes & Noble's website.

Of course this being the Internet and all, someone managed to save the image of the new e-reader before it was pulled. As seen from the image for the screen protector, the new Nook will have only one screen as opposed to two that are in the current device.

Most notable in the Nook Color is the disappearance of the E Ink screen. E Ink technology is brilliantly gentle on the eyes and makes reading text on electronic devices in direct sunlight a non-issue, but we have to wonder if there is any future left in E Ink. Almost all tablets feature full color — iPad, Galaxy Tab and Dell Streak to name a few. Is E Ink about to be doomed if the Nook drops it for a color screen too?

Our answer is yes. Consumers are seeing more value in products that aren't limited by E Ink slow refresh rates and monochrome gamut. Browsing the Web on a Kindle in black and white is terrible and don't even get us started on the limited apps it has. E Ink screens also can't support touchscreen interfaces very well yet. The way we see it, if E Ink doesn't get with the program and add more hues to its color palette, all while keeping the price low enough, it doesn't stand a chance against beefier tablets.

Cnet, via Electronista
