Financial - Page 3

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 Holdings (EIH) says it sees high demand for e-notebook displays, as these devices are increasing in popularity for smart online teaching applications - especially as the coronavirus outbreak spreads.

Digitimes reports that companies in China are launching new e-notebook solutions, as China's education ministry is promoting smart remote teaching as on-site classes are being suspended.

The government of the Guangzhou province in China announced generous subsidies (up to $285 million USD per company) to encourage investments in emerging display production in the province.

The goal is to help establish display production hubs - and the list of display technologies include OLEDs, Micro-LEDs, QD-LEDs, 3D displays, graphene enhanced display technologies - the e-paper displays.ill begin in early 2020.

Remarkable, the company behind the reMarkable 10.3" 1872 x 1404 E Ink tablet has closed another financing round, raising $15 million from Spark Capital. This follows its $10 million seed rounds, and the company will use the new funds to accelerate its growth and launch R&D to develop future products.

The reMarkable's display is relatively fast (55 ms) and supports pen input. The device is based on a Linux OS and features include 8GB of storage, 512MB of RAM, a 1Ghz ARM A9 CPU, 3,000mAh battery and ePub and PDF file support. The reMarkable is now shipping for $599.

E Ink Holdings Inc has lowered its 2019 revenue forecast, saying that revenues are expected to be 10% lower than in 2018 EIH says that the US-China trade ware has lowered demand for e-readers and e-notebooks in the US.

E-readers and e-notebooks amount to around 70% of EIH's revenues. The company is still optimistic about the electronic shelf label (ELS) market, and its shipments to that market are expected to grow 20-30% from 2018.

CLEARink demonstrated their latest color e-paper displays at SID Displayweek 2019, and following is an interesting interview with the company's CEO Frank Christiaens and CMO (our good friend Sri Peruvemba):

CLEARink latest displays are 9.7" (227 PPI) and supports 4,096 colors. Frank says that CLEARink has over $300 million in confirmed commitments, mainly from the educational market. The company hopes to bring its first displays to the market by 2020.

Ynvisible was established in Portugal in 2010 to develop flexible transparent electrochromic displays produced using a simple printing method. In 2011 the company started producing sample products (we tested one in August 2012). In September 2018, the company has gone through a reverse take-over, and the now Canadian headquartered Ynvisible Interactive Inc. has inaugurated its new production line near Lisbon.

Ynvisible now announced that it is set to acquire Sweden-based Consensum Production AB, a contract manufacturer of printed electronics and hybrid systems. The Consensum team has accumulated over a decade of experience in roll-to-roll printing of different electronic components, including displays. The company operates a full-scale roll-to-roll production line and processes required for manufacture, converting and testing of printed electronics components and systems.

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.

E Ink Holdings announced a strategic investment in Plastic Logic HK, a newly formed fabless flexible e-paper display developer and producer based on Plastic Logic's own OTFT driver technology.

Plastic Logic, originally spun out of Cambridge University, has years of experience with e-paper and OTFT technologies, and is currently owned by Russia's RusNano fund. Plastic Logic HK will work closely with E Ink and utilize EIH's supply chain and module facility to improve the cost structure of Plastic Logic's organic ePaper display modules.