Scott Liu Steps Down as CEO of e-Ink

We all know and love e-ink, due to the screen technology being prevalent on Kindle, Nook, and Kobo e-readers. There has been a shakeup of management at the company as Scott Liu has resigned as the Chairman and CEO of e-Ink and Vice Chairman Felix Ho has been named interim Chairman and CEO.

Scott Liu was the primary driver behind the success of e-Ink, when it was originally known as Primeview. He spearheaded the initiative to buyout its partner e-Ink in 2009 and replaced Neonode as the company Kobo, Barnes and Noble, Amazon, Pocketbook, and Onyx Boox used to power the displays of their line of e-readers. There is no reason on exactly why he left the company, or what he is going to do next.

He was replaced by Felix Ho, who has assumed the responsibility of Interim Chairman and CEO of e-Ink Holdings effective immediately. Mr. Ho has extensive experience in electronic displays, RFID, packaging, and consumer goods industries, and was one of the founding employees of the company. In the past year, Mr. Ho has managed the company’s e-reader business worldwide. He has also been Chairman and President of subsidiary e-Ink Corporation in Cambridge, Massachusetts since 2010.

e-Ink has seen a decline in sales in the last year, with steady losses every quarter. In Q3 2012, the company saw a loss of $7.99 million US. This is a far cry from the record one billion dollars in revenue in 2011. The company is seeing a lack of demand of e-Ink products, as most companies have shifted to a tablet strategy. Barnes and Noble is giving away Simple Touch e-Readers for free if you buy a tablet, which is very telling on how many readers are actually being sold these days. Even the e-Ink Triton 2 color display screens are not doing very well with Ectaco and Pocketbook being the only licensed vendors, and their products traditionally do well on the market.

Smart watches, keyboards, and other cool products are starting to employ e-Ink technology to make them last months on a single charge. Perhaps the display company will be shifting business priorities on other uses of the display screen technology and gravitate away from e-readers.

Michael Kozlowski (7746 Posts)

Michael Kozlowski is the Editor in Chief of Good e-Reader. He has been writing about electronic readers and technology for the last four years. His articles have been picked up by major and local news sources and websites such as the Huffington Post, CNET and more. Michael frequently travels to international events such as IFA, Computex, CES, Book Expo and a myriad of others. If you have any questions about any of his articles, please send Michael Kozlowski an email to michael@goodereader.com

News Items of Interest

Lori Fan

“the company Kobo, Barnes and Noble, Amazon, Pocketbook, and Onyx Boox used to power the displays of their line of e-readers”
And SONY. As usual, this blog leaves out mention of the Sony Reader, the one that is always first in just about every aspect of e-reader tech. What do you guys have against Sony?
Good E-Reader

Sony is mainly out of the e-reader race, the company doesn’t really do anything in that space anymore, the odd model here and there, but they really don’t care.
antiplex

very sad to see this self-fulfilling prophecy come true. the whole industry bandwagon hyping tablets seem to have left behind the e-ink technology.

yet i can’t understand why there are 25 tablets announced every day but none of the mentioned companies (including sony) are able to push forward the development of a sturdy, light, well-powered e-ink based reader that would address the limitations and disadvantages of the recent generations. a very sad decision in my view.

i’ve been waiting for about 3 years now for a large e-ink device like the pocketbook 912 that weighs less than 400g, renders content less terrible sluggish as the 500mhz powered devices, offering good format compatibility (pdf, dvju etc), >3000 pages battery life, extendable memory (sd) and eventually a lit display.

following the current development seems like i might need to wait forever if pocketbook offers no surprise with their for june/july announced device… i’ll keep my fingers crossed!
Albert Silver

There are two big problems with the e-ink devices which is why, unless some form of hybrid is found, or a revolutionary change arrives, they are a doomed technology.

1) The non e-ink tablets are far far more versatile, and they offer self-illuminating screens. While the idea of reading in bright sunlight is nice, far more people read in conditions where the light is low or insufficient. The arrival of the self-lit e-ink models is great, but arrives late, and the market has already swung too far. IMO.

2) The prices tablets of similar dimensions have started to approach the cheaper e-reader only devices, making the leap from one price bracket to the next, quite small, if non-existent.

3) Reading comfort/discomfort is becoming a non-issue. I have an IPS screen tablet, and to avoid eye-fatigue while reading, I set the Kindle App brightness to near minimum (literally 2-3 notches above minimum). Funnily this is more than enough to read comfortably, and allow long reading sessions.

4) The e-ink readers are all exclusive to a single market, and cannot be modified. this might seem obvious as the book sellers make and sell them, but it is an issue. I have a Nook Color which I hacked, and only buy from Amazon. Why? Because Barnes and Noble refuses to allow consumers from Brazil to purchase from them.