E Ink

Papercast announced that Rīgas Satiksme (Riga municipality's public transportation authority) has decided to go ahead with the second phase rollout of Papercast' E Ink display solutions. 

Driven by the success of its initial deployment and buoyed by positive feedback from passengers, Rīgas Satiksme will deploy a further 60 units of Papercast' 23" E Ink displays (this is an extension of the first phase of the project, that also had 60 units). 

During a trade show in the US (Infocomm 2024), Samsung showed its first color ePaper display, aimed towards advertisement applications - in restaurants, malls, offices, retail stores, etc.

The EMDX color ePaper TV is based on a 32" 2560 x 1440 color E Ink panel. The display also offers 8GB of internal storage, Bluetooth, Wi-Fi, and USB-C ports. 

Asus demonstrated a new laptop that includes an integrated E Ink display at the rear of its lid. The display is a color E Ink panel. The basic application that Asus envisions is a digital "laptop sticker" showcase.

Placing an E Ink panel at the back of a laptop is not a new idea. Intel showed a prototype device back in 2014, and over the years we have seen several commercial laptops with a 2nd E Ink display.

E Ink Holdings took part in Displayweek 2024, showing its latest ePaper displays and panels, and solutions:

As always, E Ink took a visible role at the event, sponsoring the I-Zone and with a large number of employees at the exhibition floor. 

Earlier this month E Ink Holdings said that the first quarter of 2024 will be its lowest point in the year, and indeed now the company formally reported its earnings, saying that there was a 25% decline in profits (to about $40.9 million) in Q1, as its customers struggled with an excessive inventory which resulted in decline in orders.

E Ink says that this decline is due to the transition to color ESL solutions, and it expects its IoT business to return to normal growth by Q3 2024. Its e-Reader business segment is seeing robust growth, better than expected, signalling a smooth switch to color ePaper solutions.  The company retains its positive outlook for this year, expecting revenue to grow every quarter going forward.

E Ink Holdings says business is recovering gradually from an inventory correction cycle. Demand for E Ink displays has risen, mainly due to the adoption of new color EPD displays for e-readers and electronic shelf labels (ESLs). The company believes that the first quarter of 2024 will be its lowest point in the year, and revenues will start rising in Q2 and onwards.

E Ink further says that many ESL customers are expected to increase orders in the third quarter of 2024, and a large retailer in North America has started replacing paper labels with ESLs. This could be Walmart as we published last year. 

Himax Technologies and E Ink Holdings announced a new collaboration to a revolutionary ultralow power battery-operated smart retail solution. The solution incorporates Himax's leading-edge WiseEye ultralow power AI sensing technology with E Ink’s signage EPD, featuring industry-leading E Ink’s Kaleido displays.

Leveraging WiseEye, the smart retail solution deploys context-aware AI in human presence and shopper insight detection while also significantly enhancing the already impressive battery life of an ePaper display and enabling real-time personalized marketing. Himax WiseEye ultralow power AI sensing technology incorporates Himax proprietary ultralow power AI processor, always-on CMOS image sensor, and CNN-based AI algorithm, offering state-of-the-art ultralow power, always-on sensing, on-device context-aware AI and has been widely deployed in consumer electronics and AIoT related applications. 

E Ink and AUO announced a new strategic partnership to co-develop large-size color ePaper displays. E Ink will provide full-color ePaper modules, while AUO will provide integrated software and hardware technologies along with the TFT backplane components.

E Ink hopes this new agreement will enable it to expand the adoption of its ePaper displays in retail applications. AUO's Smart Retail Business Group has developed software and hardware platforms that will enable the integration of the new displays and offer a direct route to market. The company is set to launch a new a cloud-based platform solution that integrates digital signage and electronic shelf labels. Its integrated CMS serves over 30,000 client nodes globally. As part of the new partnership, AUO plans to introduce additional large-size, ultra-low power consumption, energy-efficient display solutions using the E Ink displays.

E Ink announced it is collaborating with Realtek Semiconductor, Integrated Solutions Technology (IST), and Chipbond Technology to develop the System on Panel (SoP) architecture, to be integrated into the next-generation electronic shelf label (ESL) jointly developed with the system integrator, SOLUM. 

SOLUM is the number one US ESL solution provider, and the project's aim is to simplify the material structure of ESL and bring a sustainable solution via reduced material usage, lower power consumption and simplified production processes.

Kobo launched two e-Readers, both of which use E Ink's latest Kaleido 3 color displays. First up is the Kobo Libra Colour, with its 7" color 1264x1680 E Ink Kaleido 3 touchscreen (300 PPI in monochrome, 150 PPI in color). The Libra Colour offers a Dual-Core 2 Ghz chipset, Kobo Stylus 2 support ($69.99 extra), physical page turn buttons and IPX8 waterproofing. The Kobo Libra Color will ship by the end of April 2024, for $219.99.

The Kobo Clara Colour eReader offers a 6" E Ink 1448 x 1072 Kaleido 3 display (300 PPI in monochrome, 150 PPI in color), a Dual-Core 2.0 Ghz chipset and IPX8 waterproofing. The Kobo Clara Colour eReaderw will ship by end of April 2024 for $149.99.