February 2012

E Ink Holdings posted their financial results for 2011 - with $220 million in net profit, up 59% compared to 2010. Gross margin in 4Q dropped compared to last quarter as the company saw a rise in FFS panel shipments (mostly to the Kindle fire probably) - which carry a lower margin compared to EPD products.

Flexible E Ink (LG Display)

EIH's Chairman, Scott Lu said that the company isn't ramping up its Triton color E Ink product (this is probably in response to the color Kindle rumor). The company is working on a next-gen color E Ink display and it is expected by 4Q 2012. E Ink also reveals that it will release flexible plastic-based E-Ink displays in 3Q or 4Q of 2012.

There are reports that E Ink signed a deal to supply Triton (color) E Ink panels to Amazon. These are 6" panels, that Amazon will integrate into a touch enabled e-reader. Shipments will soon start (in March) and will reach over 6 million monthly units.

Color E Ink prototype

E Ink announced that the eMusic stand (also known as Rosie) won the 2011 good design award. The stand was first unveiled at the FPD 2011 exhibition in October 2011.

The good design award dates back to 1950 - and is the world's largest and most distinguished design competition. The E Ink music stand is just one of the 2011 winners - which include French manufactured Dassault Falcon jet by BMW and the Zefiro380 High-Speed Train designed by Bombardier.

E Ink Holdings published their January financial results, and the revenue was about $48 million - which is a 63% drop compared to last year (and 11% drop compared to December). Despite this the company is still expected to post revenues of over NT$40 billion in 2012 - a 5% increase over 2011.

Some say that this marks the "end of the e-reader" - with tablets clearly winning the race. Some analysts are suggesting that Amazon will sell less Kindle e-readers in 2012 then was expected, but more Kindle Fires. This is an interesting debate. Most people agree that a dedicated e-paper reader is far better as a reading device but tablets are obviously much more versatile.

Lux Research posted an interesting grid that shows how different display developers rate on technical value and business execution. It includes mature technologies like OLED and electrophoretic and emerging technologies such as electrochromic and electrofluidic displays.

E Ink comes up on top in both technical value and business execution is E Ink - with high score in technology and IP and strong partnerships and management team. In face, E Ink is the only company that scores a "strong positive" - with their nearly 100% market share of the electrophoretic market - which is used in products such as Amazon's Kindle and B&N Nook e-readers.