Amazon decided to pull out of the Chinese e-reader market. The company will stop offering Kindle devices in China by the end of June 2023, and will also stop operating its eBook stores in China.
Customers in China will be able to download the Kindle app until June 2024, and of the devices themselves will continue to operate with the books stored on them.
E Ink announced its latest color ePaper display, the Gallery 3, targeting applications in eReaders and Notes devices.
The Gallery 3 is based on E Ink's ACeP (Advanced Color ePaper) platform, where a full-color gamut is achieved through a four particle ink system: cyan, magenta, yellow and white, which allows a full color gamut at each pixel. Gallery 3 displays offers a faster refresh rate (350 ms for black and white, 500-1500 ms for color refresh), a substantial improvement over the first generation E Ink Gallery (which offers a black and white update in 2 seconds, and full-color in up to 10 seconds).
E Ink Holdings has launched an on-cell touch ePaper module, which it says is the world's first. EIH's on-cell touch technology can be applied to the company's E Ink Carta monochrome displays and its Kaleido Plus color displays.
Most e-readers today add a touch layer onto the E Ink display. EIH says that the new technology will increase the contrast ratio by 30% compared to the standard added touch layer solution. For the Kaleido Plus displays, the on-cell will increase color contrast ratio by 40% and the color saturation by 15%. As an added bonus, the on-cell touch solution will be more cost effective and could help reduce eReader prices.
E Ink Holdings says it plans to double its capital expenditure this year (to $56.5 million) in order to expand its capacity and meet its customer demand. EIH is now building four new production lines in Taiwan.
EIH says its capacity is now fully booked for the year, and it is quite sure it will be able to find customers for its new capacity as demand is strong. The company's revenues in the first two months of the year rose by 77% compared to last year. The main growth driver seems to electronic shelf label displays, but EIH also sees higher sales for e-readers and e-notebooks.
In 2019 Sony released the DPT-CP1 color Digital Paper A5 device, and now the company is set to release a new version, called (at least for now) the DPT-CP1 Version 2.
The main new feature uses E Ink's upgraded color display (Kaleido 2.5), which features a thinner gap between the display and the color filters which enables the improved performance. The new display features a 1404x1872 resolution and faster refresh.
E Ink Holdings say that demand for e-readers and electronic shelf labels improved in the last quarter, and the company expects a small growth in revenues. EIH says that Coronavirus outbreak is having only a minor impact on its operations.
In fact, EIH already said earlier this month that remote work and school projects are increasing demand for e-notebooks, and now the company says that the outbreak also increases demand for e-readers, ESLs and medical devices, especially in China. The company does see a slowdown in actual installations of ESLs projects in Europe and US where cities are in lockdown.
E Ink announced a new color e-paper technology, which they call Print-Color E Ink, which is intended for the smart education and retail markets. It can also be used in e-readers or e-notebooks, though.
E Ink did not provide much details, but says that Print-Color E Ink panels are produced on plastic substrates and are utilizing a different technology than E Ink Advanced-Color ePaper (AcEP) - which seems to be of higher quality and as such targets different applications. The company is working with partners to "launch color electronic paper application products as soon as possible".
E Ink Holdings (EIH) says that it plans to expand its Advanced Color ePaper (ACeP) e-paper production to more sizes and start offering such displays to e-readers in 2020. The company also hopes to find customers in fields such as retailing, smart traffic, logistics, medical care and education.
In May 2019 EIH started to produce 26" color ACeP displays. The display supports a refresh rate that is lower than 3 seconds (similar to EIH's first 13" ACeP display).
As Expected, E Ink Holdings (EIH) returned to profitability in Q2 2019 thanks to strong demand for e-paper displays for electronic shelf labels, e-readers and e-notebooks. Revenues in June totaled $45.67 million - up 19% from May but down 16.7% from June 2018.
EIH expects that the strong sales will continue in Q3 (fueled by peak-season demand).
E Ink Holdings is positive about the company's sales and earnings in 2019, and expects to return to profitability in Q2 2019 following a $3.4 million operational loss in Q1 2019. In the second quarter EIH saw increased shipments of e-paper displays for electronic shelf label (ESL),e-readers and e-notebooks.
In 2019 EIH managed to sign up more than 20 new customers in the education sector and is expecting to increase its e-reader and e-notebook sales to expand in H2 2019 and 2020 as well.
