Six local authorities in the UK has awarded Vix Technology with a new project to deliver and maintain a real-time passenger information (RTPI) systems.
The five-year project will include a system that connects current and new displays - including new solar-powered E Ink displays, that will complement the existing LED and LCD displays.
E Ink Holdings' president, Johnson Lee, says that demand for electronic shelf labels (ESL) displays is high - and in 2018 the company expects ESL displays to surpass e-reader displays in terms of area shipments.
This is very good news for EIH as the e-reader market has stagnated for years - and it is rather surprising for many as we have all been used to consider e-readers to be the main market for e-paper displays.
Japan Display (JDI) demonstrated its latest high-resolution (198 PPI) 30cm-wide e-paper displays for the electronic shelf-label market.
JDI is also developing much higher density e-paper displays (400 PPI and 600 PPI), these were detailed at E Ink's booth at SID but JDI did not demonstrate any of these next-gen e-papers at its own booth.
Here's a short video showing E Ink's booth at SID Displayweek 2018, where the company demonstrated its latest E Ink displays, devices and prototypes. Some of these displays looked very good, especially the new color panels!
E Ink had some very interesting displays in there - including the new medical patch developed with LTS, the high resolution (400 PPI and 600 PPI) E Ink developed together with JDI, a range of new writing pads (from Sony, ReMarkable and Onyx Boox), the GVIDO music stand display, plastic logic's OTFT-powered panels and E Ink's upcoming beautiful color e-paper displays.
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.
Japan's Aizuwakamatsu city is launching a new pilot smart bus stop display project, developed by Papercast in collaboration with E Ink holdings.
The project is administered by Aizu Riding Car Development, a consortium that aims to improve service convenience and reduce ongoing costs by digitally connecting bus stops. The E Ink displays will show real-time passenger information, and these displays will be wireless and solar-powered.
Ubiik released an ultra-low power E Ink display tag that can stay connected via low-power WAN (LPWAN) networks for over 1.5 km. Aimed towards factory environments, the new display tags has a typical lifetime of 2 years on coin cell batteries.
Ubiik offers starter kits with 2.7-inch displays (seen above), and the company will also release 4.2-inch e-paper tags in Q2 2018.
Bus stop information display pioneer Papercast has deployed its solar-powered E Ink bus stop displays for the Jerusalem Transportation Master Plan Team (JTMT) passenger information system in Jerusalem, Israel.
Papercast deployed these systems at several bus stops in Jerusalem as a pilot, with hopes to extend the deployment to all bus stops in Jerusalem. Papercast says that the E Ink displays are 36 times more efficient than previously-used LCD screens, which makes solar power feasible.
E Ink Holdings (EIH) reported its financial results for Q3 2017, with revenues of $158.8 million (up 7.8% from Q3 2016 and 29.8% from Q2 2017) and a net profit of of $38.8 million.
E Ink says that these excellent results were due to a sharp increase in e-reader and e-paper notebook sales and improvements in operation efficiency and production yields. E-reader and notebook sales accounted for 70% of EIH's revenues.
The Vienna Airport line shuttle installed outdoor E Ink signage in its stations in Vienna to show real-time passenger information to guide travelers to the airport. The project includes signage for all the shuttle bus stations (over 25).
The two main stations use a large double-sided 32" 2560 x 1440 E Ink displays (shown below), while the rest of the stations show a 15" E Ink display (shown above).