Korea-based SoluM says it has won ESL orders worth 550 billion Won ($491 million USD) in Q4 2020. The new orders are from the company's new European distributors.
SoluM says it expects its ESL business to hit record sales in 2021. The company says it is currently the world's third largest ESL vendor (following SES Imageotag and Sweden's Pricer). It is the top vendor in North America and in South Korea. SoluM's goal is to become the world's leading supplier of ESL solutions.
Flexible OTFT E Ink display designer and producer Plastic Logic announced a "significant investment" in its business from China-based e-paper display maker DKE Displays.
DKE currently produced specialized ePaper displays for applications such as electronic shelf labels (ESLs), smart cards, internet of things and smart clothing. Access to Plastic Logic's OTFT based displays will enable the company to integrate rugged, lightweight and flexible products for its target markets (mostly wearables).
UST Global announced that it is developing flexible whole-shelf electronic shelf labels, based on Plastic Logic’s advanced flexible OTFT-based E Ink technology.
UST's upcoming shelf labels will be available in a variety of sizes - up to 4 feet long and 1.75-inch deep. These innovative new labels will enable retailers to display product information and pricing across entire shelves.
E Ink Holdings says that it expects revenues in Q4 2020 to be somewhat stronger than its revenues in Q3 2020, as the COVID-19 pandemic continues to increase demand for e-readers, e-notebooks and electronic shelf labels.
EIH's Chairman Johnson Lee says that the company expects next year to be strong as well, and the company increased its capacity expansion plans for 2021 as it needs to be ready for stronger demand in the future.
E Ink Holdings says that the COVID-19 pandemic is increasing demand for e-readers and electronic shelf labels, and the company expects its 2020 revenues to reach a four-year high, when the company started to focus entirely on e-paper displays.
Due to the pandemic, consumers are buying more e-readers and tablets. Retailers are looking to adopt ESL solutions to avoid virus transmission routes as well as to enhance delivery efficiency.
E Ink Holdings says that color e-paper will become more and more important for the company, and it is increasing its capacity as demand is growing - by the end of 2020 it will increase its capacity by 10-fold, and it is likely to increase production capacity further in 2021.
The company also provided a positive outlook for the 2nd half of 2020, as demand for electronic shelf labels (ESL) is increasing - in H1 2020 E Ink shipped as many ESL displays as it did in the whole of 2019. The company's chairman says that 4% of the world's retailers have adopted electronic shelf labels
E Ink Holdings announced that China-based Yiwu Qing Yue Optoelectronics has become a member of its ePaper ecosystem partnership. EIH says that Yiwu Qing Yue will be one of the main suppliers of Electronic Shelf Labels (ESL) modules to the retail market.
Yiwu Qing Tue will assemble ESL modules based on E Ink displays. EIH hopes the company will be able to increase its penetration into the Chinese markets.
Wireless charging developer Energous announced a partnership with E Ink Holdings to develop WattUp-enabled Electronic Paper Display (EPD) tags for IoT displays such as logistics tags, electronic shelf labels and retail signage.
The goal of this new collaboration is to embed Energous' technology inside the EPD display, which will create displays that can be charged wirelessly at distances up to 15 feet away.
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 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.