Electronic paper (e-paper) has recently burst onto the scene as a radically new display technology that matches the characteristics of paper in terms of flexibility and readability, but adds the ability for constant updating from a network. The first applications for e-paper have been found in book readers and novelty products, such as flexible clocks. But e-paper is a serious product with sizeable addressable markets, especially in signage and smart shelving and in roll-up mobile displays. Major electronics and materials firms, as well as the usual slew of start-ups are already investing heavily in this technology.
Applications for E-Paper
Why would such an impressive list of firms back e-paper technology? The ability to create book readers is certainly part of the answer to this question but is insufficient reason on its own. Book readers have been around for a few years and have yet to set the consumer electronics market on fire; with the average person in industrialized countries buying just a few books a year, they are not an obvious purchase for most people. Important display/consumer electronics firms are getting in onthe e-paper business in part as a defensive posture in an environment in which the LCD display market is running out of steam; you can’t make LCD displays much bigger than they are now and the industry boom fueled by the changeover from CRT to LCD in the computer market is all but over. The investment of some newspaper firms in E Ink, suggests that they see e-paper as a future platform for newspapers.
However, the primary reason why so many firms are now interested in the e-paper market is that the technology has reached sufficient maturity that it can meet the needs of very large addressable markets in a number of different areas, including signage, mobile communications, computing and disposable electronics. Where these markets are currently addressed by real paper (primarily in the signage space), e-paper can come close to matching the visual quality of actual paper, while offering some features which paper will never be able to match, especially the ability to update and organize information electronically. Where these markets are currently being addressed by more conventional display technology – mostly LCD, but even OLEDs – e-paper can bring its superior readability to bear on the market, especially its ability to be read in sunlight. Low power consumption is also a selling feature for e-paper in many of the markets for which it is being positioned.
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