March 2019

E Ink Holdings announced that its net profit increased 25.48% to $84.6 million in 2018 as demand for high-margin electronic shelf labels (ESL) more than compenstated the lower demand for e-reader displays

E Ink Holdings is confident that its business will continue to be strong in 2019. Demand for e-readers will remain weak in H1 2019, which will result in a single-digit drop in total revenues.

E Ink Holdings has teamed up with Advantech, Avalue Technology, Cypress Technology and software developer iMedtac to develop e-paper based displays for the medical market.

The partners will develop many application solutions, including medical care information boards, clinic reception displays, drip recording cards, smart drug labelling systems, clinic bed cards and mobile data recording boards. They will use a wide range of e-paper displays, including 2.9-, 5.65-, 13.3- and 42-inch panels.

In early March we conducted a 10 day trip to Seoul, to attend the OLED Korea 2019 conference (and a visit to some local display companies). One thing that we noticed during our trip is the adoption of E Ink shelf labels in stores.

We have seen E Ink ESL displays in Samsung retail stores (used to detail the new Galaxy S10 flexible OLED smartphone family), and in supermarkets across town. The ESL displays were used to display price and information (unfortunatly always in Korean) - and were nicely placed.