With manufacturers gradually shifting towards the adoption of color e-paper displays for e-reader devices as well as electronic shelf labels (ESLs), E Ink Holdings too is witnessing a resurgence in sales post the downturn it suffered in 2022 and 2023. As the Taipei Times reported, the company further expressed hope new four-color ESLs would make up account for 90 percent of the total ESL shipments, up from the current 80 percent. Kobo made waves in the e-reader segment with the launch of its first color e-readers, the Libra Colour and the Clara Colour.
E Ink also stated retailers in North America have already started the shift towards the adoption of ESLs to replace the traditional paper labels of yore. Further, companies that have already been using ESLs are expected to upgrade to the latest generation of ESLs this quarter. E Ink is therefore anticipating greater demand for ESLs in the next quarter.
“We believe the first quarter is the lowest point. Our revenue in the second quarter will be better than the first quarter,” E Ink chairman Johnson Lee at the Touch Taiwan event in Taipei.
Apart from e-readers and ESLs, E Ink is also hoping for a sharp uptick in demand for large-sized color e-paper displays. Such displays are aimed at the retail space where they can be used for advertising purposes or as signage solutions where they can be used for conveying relevant information to the public in real-time. Those can be bus or train travel schedules, and such.
Color e-paper displays have shown good prospects in such scenarios vis-a-vis paper or LED/LCD displays. The usual drawback with paper displays is that they are prone to damage and need to be replaced whenever the information they show undergoes a change. This adds to the cost and is labor intensive as well. Traditional displays, on the other hand, require a lot of energy for their operation.
None of such with e-paper displays that consume the least of power. In fact, with solar-powered displays, there is just zero power drawn from the grid. Further, they have excellent readability, even in direct sunlight. Another huge positive with the e-paper signage is that it can be managed via a central cloud-based platform. That way, you can make changes as frequently as might be needed without worrying about costs.
With a keen interest in tech, I make it a point to keep myself updated on the latest developments in technology and gadgets. That includes smartphones or tablet devices but stretches to even AI and self-driven automobiles, the latter being my latest fad. Besides writing, I like watching videos, reading, listening to music, or experimenting with different recipes. The motion picture is another aspect that interests me a lot, and I'll likely make a film sometime in the future.
