E-Ink is the company best known for the e-paper displays found on the Amazon Kindle and Barnes and Noble Nook. Over the past few years the company has expanded their business outside of e-readers and developed luggage tags, supermarket tags and even 32 inch screens to be used in airports. Today, e-Ink has announced that they intend on upping the ante and are going to be developing a 40-50 inch screen.
E-Ink Chairman Frank Ko said in recent interview that his company is focusing R&D on flexible display based on plastic substrates instead of glass, at looking at IoT applications such as e-paper tags for retail and logistics in 2016, Ko said. Germany-based baggage vendor Rimowa and Lufthansa Airlines jointly adopted EIH flexible e-paper displays for smart baggage in 2015, and Taiwan-based EVA Airways and Japan-based airlines are considering possibilities, Ko indicated.
Will there be a commercial market for 40-50 inch e-ink screens? The only people that are employing the 30 inch ones are merely pilot projects in Australia and the UK.
Michael Kozlowski is the Editor in Chief of Good e-Reader. He has been writing about audiobooks and e-readers for the past ten years. His articles have been picked up by major and local news sources and websites such as the CNET, Engadget, Huffington Post and Verge.