At S.I.D. in San Antonio this week, attended by IDTechEx, E ink exhibited several new products and applications. The company demonstrated its new higher contrast display, with a contrast of 20:1, compared to 7:1 that it is normally used. This is specifically aimed at color applications, because the higher contrast enables more striking colors. Color is enabled by using color filters above the display, and two color products were shown. The company will be launching the color product in 2010.
E ink displays are bistable yet due to the short lifetime of the company it has not been clear how long the displays are stable for in one state.
The company showed a display that was last updated in 2000, which is still holding the image. In addition, another display has been continually refreshed since 2001, and that is still working as normal, after 60 million updates. The displays have also been tested for impact - such as ball bearing drops and hammering. The tests were conducted by the Flexible Displays Center at Arizona State University. The test can be seen on YouTube here.
Just launched in the US is a new Samsung phone offered by Verizon with an E ink keypad that changes depending on the orientation of the display (see above).
Earlier this week, the Taiwanese TFT display company Prime View International, a provider of the e-reader display for Amazon's Kindle and other e-readers, announced it had agreed to buy E ink for $215 million. This is still subject to shareholder approval. The purchase, at 3x revenue and 2x investor return, will allow for PVI to cement its activity in this area at the cusp of a huge new market. It will presumably also allow E ink easier access to funding for further development of the technology. Sales of the Amazon Kindle in 2008 was several hundred thousand units - and as many as 500,000. Amazon anticipates sales of 1 million units in 2009. In the first quarter of 2009, sales of e-book digital content for e-readers increased to $25 million from $15 million the previous quarter. For more information about the acquisition, read the press release with IDTechEx comment here.
Who is the competition?
E ink is widely covered in the press as it is used in more and more applications. But what is the alternative? Surprisingly, it is little yet many. The number two in e paper technology is some way behind E ink in terms of commercial revenue (probably a few million dollars) and products in the market. E ink's technology has been used in over $1 billion worth of products, and we estimate their revenues this year may be $75 million. On the other hand, IDTechEx is approached almost every other month by a new display company with a novel, usually completely different technology that could be used in similar applications, but are many years from viably doing so. After all, E ink has been 12 years in the making.
E-readers
There are now 20 commercial e-Readers on the market, up from 13 ten months ago. All use the E ink technology. While the technology is used in many other applications, the company told IDTechEx that about 85% of its sheet area is going into E-reader applications. The largest display, from NEC LCD, is 13.8" with a 19.4" version to be launched later this year. Chi Mei Optoelectronics, one of the largest suppliers of LCDs, has also launched an epaper module through its subsidiary Chi Lin.
For E ink, the old business school adage of "in a gold rush, sell shovels" is apt.
To learn more attend Printed Electronics Asia 2009 or Printed Electronics USA 2009.
