The e-reader and e-notebook industry has transitioned from black-and-white e-paper displays to colour. This has increased the number of factories in China and the US that are being retooled to develop screens. Companies in the electrophoretic display sector, such as E Ink Hand Netronix, have substantially improved their second-quarter results, primarily driven by colour.
The impact of the colour e-paper replacement cycle is becoming increasingly evident. After navigating inventory adjustments, EIH’s consolidated revenue in the second quarter reached $237 million, representing a 35.7% quarter-on-quarter increase and a 5.8% year-on-year increase.
Netronix Technology develops e-readers for Barnes and Noble and Kobo. They reported a nearly 50% increase from the first quarter. This growth was attributed to solid demand for its newly launched colour e-readers, marking the company’s best second quarter ever. At COMPUTEX 2024, Netronix showcased its flagship new product, the AI e-paper digital signage, which introduced E INK’s new-generation Spectra 6 panel and integrated AI technology on the software side, allowing the display to present different information and content based on the usage environment, weather, and user preferences.
This year, more colour e-readers and e-notebooks were released than traditional black-and-white. Onyx Boox, Bigme, Pocketbook, HyRead, iFlytek, and iReader have all released new models. The most crucial company is Rakuten Kobo, which embraced colour for the first time with the advent of the Clara Colour and Libra Colour. They have sold close to two million units.
Colour Notes
It is heavily rumoured that the Amazon Kindle Paperwhite and the Kindle Scribe will have new models coming out in 2025 and will have future colour screens. There has been conjecture about whether they will use Gallery 3 or Kaleido 3 e-paper.
Kobo plans on releasing a colour version of the Elipsa later this year.
It is rumoured that Barnes and Noble might release a colour Nook by the end of November.
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.