Earlier this year the chairman for E Ink told investors that shipments of ereader displays would be down for the first half of 2018, and that turned out to be true.
Now in a new report in an article over at the Taipei Times, E Ink’s president seems to imply that no new Kindles will be getting released this year.
E Ink still expects the ereader market to be down through 2018.
Here’s a quote from E Ink’s president at an investors’ conference:
“We still believe e-readers are a business with consistent growth. This year is an exception. Next year, the e-reader market will resume high-speed growth as experienced over the past few years.”
Basically they expect overall revenues for 2018 to be about the same as last year, and that’s with a growth in their electronic shelf labels and e-notebook markets this year.
That means sales of ereader displays has dipped a bit and they don’t expect to see growth until next year.
If Amazon were to release a new entry-level Kindle and/or Kindle Paperwhite this fall, that would certainly tip the scales in E Ink’s favor, but they don’t seem to think that’s going to happen.
Last year Amazon released the premium Kindle Oasis 2 but it sells for a lot more than the other Kindle models so they don’t sell nearly as many units.
If Amazon had new Kindles coming in the next month or two, E Ink’s 2018 revenues would be more optimistic. And if new Kindles were in the works they’d be ramping up production right about now.
Amazon has to release new Kindles eventually—the Kindle Paperwhite has been sporting the exact same design for over six years now and the entry-level Kindle has the most outdated screen of any ebook reader on the current market—but going off E Ink’s statement it doesn’t sound like that’s expected to happen until 2019.
I simply refuse to believe that Amazon will not release a new paperwhite this year. It’s unfathomable. From a hardware prospective, Amazon has the most outdated devices in the market.
Shouldn’t Kobo be releasing a new device soon? Can a device go thru the FCC and not be produced until the following year?
If Kobo releases a new device it’s unlikely to have a big impact on overall sales; Kobo does a terrible job of advertising and promoting their ereaders. Barely anyone cares or even knows about the Clara HD that they just released. The lower cost Kindles are where the big sales numbers come from.
Is it possible that Amazon has a new “ink” technology that is proprietary?
Also, why believe e-ink prez? Maybe Amazon wants a big splash?
Just thinkin’ out loud…
Why not believe the president of E Ink when talking to investors? Why would he lie about something like that? He’s just being honest about ereader screen sales being down in 2018. The fact that they expect high-speed growth in 2019 is pretty telling that new Kindles will get released then, since Amazon is by far their biggest customer when it comes to ereader displays.
Well…. [EXPLETIVE]!
I think Amazon can still sell a new Paperwhite with se same E Ink Carta screen there is the Kobo Clara HD.
If I remember well, the new Kindle Paperwhite will have a new improved frontlight, bluetooth for audio books and maybe more RAM or a better processor.
All that parts are not comming from E Ink but from other suppliers.
If the Paperwhite 4 is comming for christmass and Amazon doesn’t sell new Voyage, E Ink won’t see any improvement in the scrrens shipping numbers.
Like Rick, I simply refuse to believe that Amazon will not release a new paperwhite this year.
But, have we see something coming from FCC for Amazon ?
(Sorry for my bad English I’m French)
Wonder what is in the pipeline that would trigger rapid growth next year. My guess is that we will see something from Amazon. It may only be a light temperature addition to a current model.
I don’t have the exact figures, but isn’t the e-reader market quite dead, in the sense that Amazon through cross subsidizing and a closed ecosystem of a majority books through DRM, e-reader wise, has a complete hold of the market?
2018 is almost over so any new launches by Amazon will have little impact on this year’s results. Amazon would simply be replacing the Voyage and possibly the existing Paperwhite so those losses offset any new volume in a new Amazon device, and you would not expect any net growth. If E Ink believes there is growth next year for ereaders, then it suggests Amazon should be launching something new soon. I would guess they launch a new product by Black Friday.
As Lenovo is releasing the Yoga Book C930 in Oct. 2018 with an eink display, I would have thought that E-Ink’s president would have mentioned a new market for these displays.
Amazon may realize some competition if the display were to run both Kobo and Kindle apps well.
They consider them e-notebooks. The Kindle app does work well on the new Onyx devices. I use it all the time on the Onyx Note. So much so that I haven’t had any desire to use the Kindle Oasis in months.
Another blog said a new Paperwhite would be out later this year. Just sayin.
That blog is known for making up stories just to get attention. They probably said the exact same thing last year. Amazon isn’t going to divulge their Kindle release schedule to a low level blog based in Canada, especially one with such an untrustworthy reputation.
It is kind of obvious that Amazon does not have any business driver to invest in spectacular new device. They have decent line of small readers, Kindle app is working on big eink readers with Android… Why should they care? I do not see that new device will increase number of books sold. So, let us wait and see ;).
This isnt Amazons fault, it’s Googles and Apple’s. Seriously they have online bookstore and yet dont offer dedicated eReaders for their customers. Ridiculous! Not that they would make any money thanks to Amazons Monopolization of the industry but still. Either offer a dedicated device for your ecosystem or GTFO!
Amazon is complacent due to a lack of competition from these lazy fools
I mean just imagine if Apple came out with a dedicated e-ink eReader. It would make the device cool and everyone would want one and that would drive Amazon bonkers and would spark a fire in the arse!
I would definitely buy an Apple e-ink device no matter the cost. I think that would be awesome as long as they allowed other provoder’s ebooks and not just ibooks to be read on it.
Kobo forma is much better option than Kindle oasis
Comparing to the price
Screen size