April 2016

E Ink Holdings announced that it collaborated with Vanzo Technology to develop a dual-screen mobile phone turnkey solution. The system is based on the MediaTek (MTK) platform and combines E Ink e Paper technology with Vanzo’s software and APP.

E Ink says that this new solution will enable mobile phone makers to shorten product development time and investment for dual screen devices.

Last month PopSlate launched a crowdfunding campaign to finalize development and production of their 2nd-gen iPhone case, the PopSlate 2. The campaign was a hug success, and the company raised over $1.1 million.

The PopSlate 2 offers a 4.7" 800x450 E Ink display for the back of your phone. The case adds 4 mm to your phone, and connects to the phone via a Lightning connector that also charges your phone from the PopSlate's battery. The PopSlate 2 supports iPhone 6, 6S, 6 plus and 6S Plus.

E Ink Holdings developed a new 2.9" E Ink ultra-thin display turn key solution. The new system combines the e-paper display with a complete system for customers to use in mobile terminal devices.

E Ink says that the new display is especially suited as a secondary smartphone display. The system does not use a battery and rely on NFC for the driving power and data transmission.

Researchers from Microsoft and the University of Applied Sciences Upper Austria developed a new smartphone case prototype called FlexCase -that adds a secondary flexible E Ink touch display.

FlexCase enables users to interact with their phone in several ways - including bending it to flip pages, zoom and navigate. The basic concept is similar to OLED-based prototypes demonstrated in the past. . Back in 2011 Nokia demonstrated an OLED concept called the Kinetic, and in 2015 AUO demonstrated a bendable 5" AMOLED display that includes a film-type touch sensor.

China-based Jiangxi Holitech expects to ship 6-8 million electronic labels and 10-12 million electronic label modules in 2016. I'm not sure what is the difference between these two terms, but both will use E Ink displays. The company is in talks with 10 leading supermarket chains interested in adopting the new e-labels.

In October 2015, E Ink Holdings announced a strategic partnership with Jiangxi Holitech Technology to on EPD displays to mobile phones, wearable devices, retail electronic labels and digital price-tags.

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E Ink Holdings reported their financial results for 2015. The ePaper maker says the profit grew to $16.7 million (up from $0.4 million in 2014) mostly due to higher royalty income and better gross margins (31% in 2015, up from 22% in 2014).

E Ink's royalties come from its LCD business, as its subsidiary Hydis Technologies owns some important LCD patents that it licenses to other makers. Hydis itself stopped making LCDs in 2014.