Color E Ink is coming by way of the Far East. Hanvon, providers of 90% of the world's E Ink will be showing off its new color E Ink technology in Japan tomorrow. The Chinese company expects color E Ink to even the playing field between e-readers and tablets, but can it?

Experts are saying that color E Ink is the "next logical step" and that it will "bring e-readers to a higher level." We want to believe that what the experts are saying bear some truth, but with more of our lives spent consuming videos on YouTube and enjoying all sorts of rich multimedia on the web, it seems a dash of color isn't nearly as huge a leap as it was for the old print media.

We're always going to get flak for comparing e-readers to tablets. It's like comparing apples to oranges, but if you can't see both of these types of devices are going after the same market — the end consumer, then you're being extremely naive.

We understand that tablets are computers first and e-readers second, but consumers don't care. They want more features in one package. The future is one where everything is connected — people don't want to carry two devices to do two tasks. They want to carry one, even if it means hurting the eyes a little when deciding between an iPad and Kindle.

If e-readers don't start adding some more features, it's going to become a technology lost in the shuffle. Most people will only need to carry a smartphone and a tablet. An e-reader, color or not isn't going to make a huge impact if it can't play video — in color and not look like a GIF.

Hanvon is planning to release its first color e-reader in China next year for about $440. that's $60 less than an iPad. But for $60, consumers can buy a tablet that does so much more. The chinese company says its color e-reader will not be a direct competitor to the iPad and other tablets. Okay, but that's not how people who make the purchasing decisions see it. Most buyers are going to shoot for the device with the most value and adding a few more hues isn't going to make text worth the extra couple hundred bucks.

Via NY Times