E Ink Holdings's CEO Frank Ko says that as of the end of 2015, E already shipped over 60 million smart e-paper labels since starting to offer these commercially. Sales are picking up, and in 2016 alone E Ink expects to sell over 40 million smart labels.
According to the Economic Daily News, E InK Holdings signed a 5-year supply agreement with Germany-based consumer electronics retail chain, for the supply of electric shelf labels (ESLs).
E Ink says that it already cooperated with 20 retail chains around the world, to perform ESL trials, but this may be the company's first large-scale deployment agreement.
E-paper developer CLEARink Displays announced that it has established a joint venture in China with Suzhou Jinfu to commercialize Clearink's breakthrough reflective display technology for various ePaper applications in China.
The new JV will target several applications - including mobile phones, wearable devices, tablets, eReaders and electronic shelf labels. Clearink aims to launch the first monochrome display early in 2017, and color displays in 2018.
E Ink Holdings reported its financial results for Q1 2016 - revenues were  NT$2.5 billion ($76.6 million USD) and the net loss was NT$272 million ($3.84 USD) - down from a net profit of NT$766 in Q4 2015 (but up from a loss of $1.23 billion in Q1 2015).
EIH says that its licensing revenues from Hydis FFS LCD technology is lower than it used to be because the display industry is shifting from LCD to OLED technologies.
Panasonic published a new video, demonstrating its new electronic shelf labels (ESL) that are batteryless and uses NFC and an E Ink display.
The ESLs are powered by Panasonic's 8-bit MN101L MCUs that use 64kb RRAM memory - which is funny as only a few days ago we posted about our new RRAM focused site...
E Ink announced announced an investment it made in Wuxi Vision Peak Technology (previously Wuxi Wei Feng Technology), a service provider in e-paper display R&D.
E Ink (which invested in Wuxi via its subsidiary Transcend Optronics) and Wuxi Vision Peak will form a strategic partnership and join foruces to expand the E Ink market and promote the use of e-paper in applciations such as electronic price tags and electronic shelf labels. Besides the investment, E Ink will provide technical support.
E Ink Holdings announced a new joint-venture with e-reader maker Netronix. The two companies iwll launch a new JV (Netronix will hold a 51% share) in China's Jaingsu province that will focus on e-paper system integration and product assembly services.
E Ink says that the new venture will provide its services for applications such as smartphone back covers, electronic shelf labels and e-paper billboards. Production (or assembly/integration, really) will begin in October 2015.
Two years ago, E Ink announced the Spectra e-paper panels that feature three pigments - black, white and red. Today the company announced an expansion of that product line to include the Spectra Yellow, which can show black, white or yellow colors.
The Spectra panels are aimed for electronic shelf label (ESL) retail applications. E Ink says that red and yellow are two of the most widely used colors relevant to in-store displays and signage. Spectra panels support both active-matrix and segmented format displays.
UK's retailer Sainsbury is trailing new E Ink shelf price labels at its Shoreditch Old Street Local store. Sainsbury hopes that the new digital labels will enable them to provide quicker and efficient digital pricing information. The trial's aim is to see how much paper and time is saved using the new labels.
Each unit is assigned to a certain product, and then prices and offers are updated automatically from central systems. The units use secure, encrypted software and are designed to resist cold temperatures in fridges and freezers. Some of the units will use E Ink's new Spectra panels that support white, black and red colors.
Dixons, the UK's electronics retailer is trialing E Ink based electronic shelf-edge price labels in a Curreys and PC World store in Aylesbury. The Herberg Group is supporting Dixons with software.
Using the E Ink labels, Dixons can adjust details and prices of products from a central location. Dixons hopes that this will enable it to compete dynamically with internet retailers. The labels will also provide more information on the product which will help customers to make more informed choices. Later on Dixons will also enable smartphone interactions via QR codes and social media tools.
