According to reports Russia-based YotaPhone is bankrupt. YotaPhone developed dual-screen smartphones. Its latest device was the YotaPhone 2 -which sported a 5" OLED front display and a 4.7" E Ink touch screen on the back
The Yotaphone were innovative, but sadly it seems as there was low consumer demand for such devices.
E Ink Holdings announced that its net profit increased 25.48% to $84.6 million in 2018 as demand for high-margin electronic shelf labels (ESL) more than compenstated the lower demand for e-reader displays
E Ink Holdings is confident that its business will continue to be strong in 2019. Demand for e-readers will remain weak in H1 2019, which will result in a single-digit drop in total revenues.
Color e-paper developer CLEARink announced that Lenovo has become an investor in CLEARink, and the two companies will jointly-develop next-generation tablet devices based on CLEARink's displays.
In 2018 CLEARink announced that it has signed a $10 million supply agreement with a leading tablet maker to start supplying tablet displays beginning in 2019. It is likely that this leading tablet maker is Lenovo, which has now became an investor in CLEARink as well.
Ford launched a City Of Tomorrow challenge in Miami-Date County, Florida - with a goal to improve mobility in the city. One of the two winners was Soofa - with its solar-powered benches and information display signs. Sofa was awarded with $50,000 and will deploy its signs in up to three neighborhoods in the county.
Soofa uses 32" E Ink displays (and a system developed by Visionect) to show bus and train arrival times, alternative modes of transportation available and also local events and activities.
E Ink Holding's president Johnson Lee says that EIH expects to enjoy strong sales in Q4 2018 - and the growth momentum will continue in 2019. The increased sales will be driven by strong demand for electronic shelf label (ESL) products.
EIH's current production capacity is fully booked - and even though the company is increasing its capacity at its Linkou Taiwan plant, this will not be enough to meet the surging demand. EIH is now considering converting some of its production capacity at its US plant to produce ESL displays (the fab is currently exclusively making e-reader displays).
E Ink Holdings estimates that its 2018 revenues will be little changed from its 2017 revenues (of about $495 million) as growth in ESL and e-notebook revenues will offset the decline in e-reader demand.
E Ink says that its e-reader customers are "adjusting their product portfolios to changing demand" in 2018 - which reduces demand for new devices and thus demand for its e-reader E Ink displays. Next year, however, e-reader market growth is expected to resume.
E Ink Holdings reported its Q2 2018 financial results. Operating losses decreased to only $1.73 million (down from $8.5 million in Q1 2018). Royalty income increased almost 80% to $25.8 million - which results in a net profit of almost $28 million.
E Ink says that it expects revenues to grow at a faster rate int he second half of the year, and the company also approved a new plan to streamline its management and improve its operational efficiency.
E Ink Holdings posted an operating loss of $8.8 million USD in Q1 2018, as it faces a slowdown in e-reader sales and as it increased its operating expenses by 14.3% (this includes the $30 million investment in SES-imageotag). E Ink says that this loss was in line with its expecations, as it knows e-reader vendors are now updating their models and shifting to larger screen sizes (larger than the current 6-inch models).
E Ink says it expects its results to improve in the current quarter, and it believes its 2018 results will be better than its 2017 results.
E Ink Holdings say that it expects low demand for e-paper displays in the first half of 2018, as the e-reader market is set for a low season as customers are transitioning to new models and are not ordering new displays (but rather use these in their inventories). E-reader displays account for about 70% of E Ink's revenues in 2017.
Displays for e-notebooks and electronics shelf labels are expected to grow in the period, but apparently this won't be enough to offset the low demand for e-reader displays.
UK-based Bodle, startup developer of the SRD (Solid-State Reflective Displays) technology that promises to combine bright and vivid colors with low energy consumption, has raised £6 million (around $8.45 million USD) in Series A funding.
The round was dominated by Parkwalk Advisors, with participation from Woodford Patient Capital Trust, and returning backers Oxford Sciences Innovation and the Oxford Technology and Innovations EIS Fund (OTIF).