Facing challenges in transitioning products, E Ink revised its 2023 revenue projection to either remain flat or experience a single-digit decline, a Digitimes report on this stated. This marks the second revision to their forecast. Netronix, a close partner of E Ink, is also impacted, with 60 percent of its revenue expected to come from e-paper applications this year, down from 70 percent in 2022. Despite this, Netronix remains optimistic about growth in e-paper products driven by large-sized billboards, the shift of e-readers to color, and ESG initiatives.
While there’s a projection of an on-year decrease in Q4 2023 due to the transition of e-ink devices to color, Netronix anticipates benefiting from the traditional peak season, improving operations in H2 2023 compared to H1. As things stand at the moment, there has been a growing shift towards color e-paper devices and applications. Electronic Shelf Labels or ESLs are now capable of displaying four colors against the three it has been so far. Further, companies are increasingly turning to launch color e-readers and e-note devices.
Despite the challenges in the e-paper market, Netronix experienced significant growth in revenue and profit in H1 2023. This success can be largely attributed to the positive contributions from subsidiaries, particularly Analog Integrations Corporation (AIC). With a 40 percent ownership stake in AIC, Netronix observed a significant surge in consolidated revenue, marking a 34.6 percent month-on-month and an impressive 79.4 percent year-on-year increase in August. This growth contributes to Netronix’s projection of a double-digit growth rate in revenue for the entire year.
Meanwhile, the company’s chairman, Arthur Lu, returned to lead Netronix, focusing on high-value-added applications for e-paper devices. While there are no concrete plans to scale up e-reader production at the moment, the company said they continue to assess the situation and is most likely to go for capacity expansion in 2024 at the earliest. Netronix said it is closely monitoring the e-book reader market in China, especially after Amazon exited the Chinese market.
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.
