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If they did that, they'd be working on Mirasol...

http://www.mirasoldisplays.com/ from qualcomm is just one example

This page explains near the end: http://www.mirasoldisplays.com/mobile-display-imod-technology
It's bistable, so it retains memory of the image without needing power (or only a little power), which is similar to e-ink.
But it switches much faster than e-ink, so it can do video, presumably consuming power for the regions which change.

The Mirasol display technology is pretty cool.
http://www.mirasoldisplays.com/mobile-display-imod-technology

E-ink color is wretched technology. It's a conventional e-ink display stuck behind a transparent layer which "tints" the pixels with different colours. If you want to get an idea of the effect, print out a gray scale picture on some cardboard and colour it in with felt tip pens. If there is a future in e-ink displays it is likely to be Mirasol which offers vivid colours, high screen refreshes and optional backlighting.

Speaking of new display technologies, the Mirasol display looks interesting:

http://www.mirasoldisplays.com/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Interferometric_modulator_display

After going through two articles and a blog, we get to the Mirasol site. Mirasol is straightforward - each pixel is a flexible membrane in an air gap. It's bistable; either the membrane is against the front plate (dark) or against the back plate (light), pushed there by an electrostatic charge. So it's either monochrome, or an 8-color technology if RGB pixels are provided. By putting in more pixels, they can dither their way up to 3 bits of color per pixel, for 512 different colors. This costs resolution, of course. Their technical paper talks about dithering over time at 50Hz to get more even shades. But if they do that, they lose their power-saving advantage. It costs power to change a pixel.

This is one of many bistable persistent display technologies. Kent Displays has had a similar technology, cholesteric LCD devices, for years, used mostly for big display signs and military applications. Until recently, Kent's displays were very expensive, but they've finally solved the cost problem. This year's DEFCON badge has a built-in Kent display.

Like these? http://www.mirasoldisplays.com/

There is a display technology just becoming mature enough to replace the LCD displays in smartphones with something that uses a lot less power; a phone battery might last 40% longer with this display in it.

http://www.mirasoldisplays.com/