Yesterday Amazon confirmed that they bought Liquavista from Samsung. Samsung bought them in 2011 but never did anything with the company.
E-paper, similar to e-ink (but not the same) is a very low power screen technology. But e-paper is color, able to show video as well as color images and is a flexible screen display so it does not require a hard plastics or glass screen (so hopefully it would be more durable and less prone to breakage.)
So this might mean that Amazon is planning on using the technology in a future kindle. But the predictions that Amazon ‘will soon have a color kindle’ have been regularly made since about 2008.
This is a good sign for those that are looking forward to a color eink (or eink like) display. But it may also be a first step to moving away from the current eink screens that have had almost no real innovation in the last 5 years.
Liquavista announced the Pebble, a color ereader in 2010, but it has remained a concept product that has never come to market.