E INK is the the industry leader in e-paper displays and they really don’t have any competition in this space. They are not resting on their laurels, instead they continue to invest in research and development. In 2020, they spent 16% of their total revenues to develop new technology such as Carta 1200 and Carta 1250, Kaleido 1 color e-paper and Kaleido Plus color e-paper. The company also developed Specta 3100 for shelf labels, the On-Cell touch module and various foldable prototypes. The vast majority of their research targets the e-reader and e-note sectors, which represent over 50% of their total revenue. In order to produce all of these new display technologies. E INK plans on expanding their factory in Northern Taiwan and plans to recruit about 400 additional employees in 2021. They also expanded their factory in Massachusetts.
E INK has benefited from increased global demand for e-book readers, e-paper notebook and electronic shelf labels arising from coronavirus pandemic, Present and CEO Johnson Lee disclosed. As global demand for e-paper is larger than originally expected, E INK has been faced with short supply and prices hikes for components and materials, Lee said, adding in order to promote long-term application of e-paper, EIH has itself absorbed increases in cost and not hiked quotes.
There have been a bunch of companies that have released e-readers and e-notes this year, and we should see some type of record, for the sheer number of new devices that have been issued, some by major players. Kobo issued the Elipsa, which is their first professional e-note and uses Carta 1200, the only company that has. Fujitsu, just released the second generation Quaderno A4 and A5, which use Carta 1250. There have been a multitude Kaleido Plus Color e-paper devices from Guoyue, Bigme, Onyx Boox, Pocketbook and many more are on the way. Normal e-readers are also going to be released by the end of the year, this includes a new Amazon Kindle, Kobo, possible Nook, Onyx is going to refresh most of their lineup with new products, including a few E INK monitors.
Michael Kozlowski is the editor-in-chief at Good e-Reader and has written about audiobooks and e-readers for the past fifteen years. Newspapers and websites such as the CBC, CNET, Engadget, Huffington Post and the New York Times have picked up his articles. He Lives in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada.