Full colour Kindle by Christmas?

30 June 2010 1:43 GMT / By Rik Henderson

Although we've previously brought you info, plus pics and video of Mirasol's MEMs-based reflective full colour display technology before, a demo at parent company Qualcomm's San Diego campus has revealed more details - including a strong hint that the next Amazon Kindle is to adopt the tech.

Mirasol's screen, which is now capable of being manufactured at any size, is colour, can run video content, and requires only 1mW of power to run. In comparison, a similarly sized TFT LCD screen requires 20mW, and an AMOLED display needs a staggering 100-700mW. That essentially means that battery life will be greatly enhanced on a Mirasol-laden device.

And we may not have to wait too long to see one hit the market.

The company aims to have one or more ebook readers on the market by the end of 2010, beginning of 2011, and is working towards building the technology into iPad multimedia devices by 2013. It is also keen to have its screens adopted by the smartphone market by the same timescale.

"Activity will come from the ereader sector first", said Cheryl Goodman, director of marketing, Qualcomm MEMS Technologies. "We are working towards the end of the year, beginning of next, and with multiple vendors".

And while she won't confirm who those manufacturers/suppliers are, when asked if the Kindle will be part of the Mirasol roll-out, Goodman teasingly told Pocket-lint, "multiple deals are in the queue",

Considering the 5.7-inch device and super-thin static display we checked out, this can only be a good thing for Amazon. Or Barnes and Noble? Or Cool-er? Maybe all of them? Now, that would be interesting...