The e-reader and e-notebook industries have switched from black-and-white e-paper displays to color. This has increased the number of factories in China and the US that are being converted to develop screens. Companies in the electrophoretic display field such as E Ink Hand Netronix have significantly improved their second-quarter results, largely due to color.
The impact of the color e-paper replacement cycle is becoming increasingly apparent. After inventory adjustments, EIH’s consolidated revenue reached $237 million in the second quarter, an increase of 35.7% quarter-on-quarter and 5.8% year-on-year.
Netronix Technology develops e-readers for Barnes and Noble and Kobo. They reported an increase of nearly 50% over the first quarter. This growth was driven by solid demand for the newly launched color e-readers and marked the company’s best second quarter in its history. At COMPUTEX 2024, Netronix showcased its new flagship 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 depending on the usage environment, weather and user preferences.
This year, more e-readers and e-notebooks were launched in colour than in black and white. Onyx Boox, Bigme, Pocketbook, HyRead, iFlytek and iReader have all launched new models. The most important company is Rakuten Kobo, which launched colour for the first time with the launch of Clara Colour and Libra Colour. They have sold almost two million units.
Color notes
New models of the Amazon Kindle Paperwhite and Kindle Scribe are rumored to be released in 2025 and will have color screens in the future. There has been speculation about whether they will use the Gallery 3 or Kaleido 3 e-paper.
Kobo plans to release a color version of the Elipsa later this year.
Rumor has it that Barnes and Noble might release a color Nook in late November.
Michael Kozlowski is the Editor-in-Chief of Good e-Reader and has been writing about audiobooks and e-readers for 15 years. His articles have been featured in newspapers and websites such as CBC, CNET, Engadget, Huffington Post, and the New York Times. He lives in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada.
