I enjoy connecting the dots of current technology to imagine what lies ahead in our near future. I have a prediction for color e-ink that I don't think is that far off in our future. Color e-ink continues to develop into a more vibrant set of colors even though, in it's current state, is too dull. The other obstacle being worked on is a manufacturing process that will make it inexpensive to the end user.
The first application that I thought of was the Electronic Photo Frame. This would be the perfect marriage. Currently, the photo frames look like little computer monitors and not like normal printed pictures. Secondly, they have to be plugged into a wall, which can create some ugly wires showing or limit the placement of the frame. If they used color e-ink, the pictures would look like actual printed photos and the energy efficiency would be such that they could be run by battery (because it only uses battery when the image changes). The E-photo frames will likely become plenty thin, have wifi to fetch new photos from flickr & the like, and run on battery so that they can be hung on any wall. Of course, wifi would drain the battery more, but it would be optional and could be set up to only fetch new photos once a week or less.
The next application dawned on me when I looked at an electronic billboard. The third application hit me when I was in a fast food restaurant and saw a menu that was actually an LCD monitor. Besides fast food menus, there are screens for arrival & departure at the airport, advertisements in the mall & retail stores, etc. To spare the reader repetition, I'll just say that they same advantages I mentioned for the photo frame would apply just as well to these uses. These applications would likely all be plugged into a wall, but still be much more energy efficient.
In all of these situations, the product will look more pleasing to the eye and be much more efficient.
Bonus: Aside from the current slow refresh rate for e-ink, most everything you might do on an iPad-type device could be done with color e-ink. You would be missing Video and Games, but you could have a device that does e-mail, read blogs & news, check stocks, calendar, notes/documents, e-books, etc.
