Pixel Qi has been talking up its innovative display technology for months, promising low power consumption together with indoor and outdoor readability for netbooks and specialized tablet devices. While they've already showed off some working samples at Computex and elsewhere, today we are pleased to learn that production is underway for the first batch of screens, with actual products featuring them to become available in Q1 2010.
The company has not yet announced which manufacturers they are working with on these devices but hopes to do so before CES. According to Mary Lou Jepsen, Pixel Qi's founder and former CTO at the One Laptop Per Child organization, several of its partners will be showing multi-touch tablets at the show in Las Vegas next month. She also confirmed that they will be ramping up production next quarter and promised to "make every attempt" at having a limited number of screens available to the DIY community during this timeframe.
Their 3qi display can not only switch between an efficient black-and-white mode and a high resolution color screen, but also to an even less power hungry e-paper mode suitable for reading in direct sunlight.